Osteoporosis Treatments – Easy to Swallow Pills, Daring Self-Injections, Monthly or Semiannual Infusions

After a year and a half, I finally have begun my osteoporosis treatments. When you receive a diagnosis of severe osteoporosis, you think that treatments would start rather quickly. However, there is much to consider.

See Your Dentist

First, Your doctor must consider which type of doctor to send you to. You can be treated by a rheumatologist but I had hormone issues so I was sent to an endocrinologist. Both of these are few and far between, plus I am on Medicare, so that was a determiner as well.

There are several different treatments all of which have side effects that are not that desirable. When I finally saw my endocrinologist, she sent me to my dentist! You see, you must do any dental work first because these drugs have very serious side effects if you try to deal with the roots of your teeth while taking the drug. I wrote about my dental journey at Learning the Hard Way: Your Teeth and Osteoporosis.

Blood and Urine Tests

The second thing my endocrinologist did was to do a bunch of labs including a calcium test. This is gross; but, you must collect ALL your urine for 24 hours and take it to a lab to test how much calcium is in your urine. You can go to Healthline for an explanation of what is entailed and what it all means.

Treatments Plus Supplements

I was then instructed to take 1200 mg of calcium a day only with vitamin D3. Many calcium tablets have vitamin D3 added to them. My doctor suggested taking either Calcium Caltrate or Calcium Citrate. This is the cheaper route and basically what doctors tell you to do. But if you want a more holistic approach use a marine or bovine base calcium because it is naturally occurring calcium. I split the difference and use Calcium Citrate which comes in 630mg. I add bovine calcium which contains a Bone Matrix of supplements you need to have. If you are vegetarian or just want more holistic calcium you could also try NATURELO Bone Strength. It has the added nutrients that you need as well.

“Collagen peptides make up one-third of the body’s protein composition and are the most abundant protein inside the body. They’re the building blocks inside our system to help strengthen, support and keep everything together. The word collagen itself derives from the word “kolla,” which means glue. Collagen is the glue inside our system that holds us together. Our skin depends on it; our aging, connective tissue, blood vessels, and a whole range of things depend on it.”

9 Benefits of Using Collagen Daily, Dr. Livinggood

Don’t Forget to Exercise

Your bones need weight-bearing exercises to tell them to stay strong. I’ll you need is walking or jumping to do this. But running, yoga, and others are also helpful.

Finally, the Treatment Itself

After considering all my health issues and dealing with my dental work, we chose an infusion called Evenity. This is a very new drug that builds bone rather than only maintaining the bone. However, my insurance did not approve it. The second choice was also a bone-builder called Tymlos. This is a daily injection you give to yourself for two years; then I will switch to a twice-a-year infusion called Prolia which maintains the bone for the remainder of my life.

I really struggled at the idea of giving myself injections every day, but I finally came to terms with it and started about two months ago with only slight side effects (heart skips for about an hour following the injection. Here’s how the Lord helped me through this decision…

RESOURCES

9 Benefits of Using Collagen Peptides Daily – Dr. Livingood (drlivingood.com)

https://www.healthline.com/health/calcium-urine

List of 63 Osteoporosis Medications Compared – Drugs.com

The Major Treatments

How I Worked Through Treatment Decision Making

I want to thank you for your support and prayers on this matter. It was a difficult decision. I just didn’t know what to do. Then God reminded me of King Jehoshaphat. So I went and reread his story. The enemy king sent letters to King J. saying he would annihilate the city. King J. took the letters and laid them on the altar. He prayed, “Lord, we do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.

God responded, “Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged. You will not have to fight this battle. The battle is the Lord’s.

Then the priests began singing praises to God. And the next day King J. sent out his army to face the enemy. But he sent singers out in front of the army. This scared the enemy so badly that they turned on each other and killed themselves.

So I made the decision to do these daily injections for the next two years. I will give myself the injections every day at 9:30 am EST. (This has turned out to be more like 10) But before that, I will be singing praises to God.

Would you also, be my “singers” at 9:30 am EST every day possible to fight this enemy?

Mandy

UPDATE: After 3 months… 3/15/2023

After three months of daily shots, I thought it prudent to give a report.

1. Beware that your stomach will begin to have injection tracks all over it. Sometimes there is no evidence, other times there is a bruise.
2. Some days there is no pain as I mentioned above, But other days there is a bit of a sting. And sometimes the pain continues throughout the day. (They do warn of this) At times, I have a sting of a needle come out of nowhere. Fun! 🙂
3. I have had an occasional day of nausea and general feeling bad. It seems to coincide with taking methotrexate once a week.

Mandy Farmer

Pastor’s Wife (retired) &  Chronic Pain Warrior blogs about how to make it through anything by relating her own life experiences to her writing. She is passionate about her love for the Lord and desires to spread that passion to others. She has a great desire to encourage women who are following behind her.

www.mandyandmichele.com