medical info...

Before we get started: if you are not female/related to me, you might as well stop reading now, as this will be of little interest and no concern....

With a family history of osteoporosis, I am naturally concerned and interested in doing what ever is practical to keep my bones, and therefore my person, going strong.  One of the grandmothers was very small, a petite woman, barely five feet tall, with tiny feet, and little bird bones. The other was a larger person, but had many broken bones over the years, arms, legs, and several joint replacements, possibly due to arthritis. So crumbly bones are a legacy that I was given, and sadly, will likely pass along to another generation.

I've been taking some prescription meds for a number of years in an effort to avoid or possibly just forestall bone loss, but a recent scan indicated otherwise. The scans can identify a pre-osteo. condition, or indicate the problem is more advanced, and actually shows there is clearly some depletion, bone loss occurring. I've had several done over the years, something that I have been pleasantly surprised to discover my health insurance covering, I assume as a preventive measure. And over those years of scans, have been indicated I am considered 'at risk'. Not a good thing, especially for someone who decided twenty years ago I should start taking better care of myself.  When I realized both of those grandmothers survived into their mid-nineties - that put me 'at risk' for living as long, and I do not want to be that age and struggling with mobility issues, unable to dance in the rain, drink beer on the beach, swim with the dolphins, hang-glide off the mountain edge, hike the AT, gallop bareback across the open pastures, climb to the top of the tree, drive all over north America, stopping to sleep in a hundred campgrounds.

Then a scan a year ago indicates that it is no longer a possibility, or even likelihood, but actually occurring. So, here I sit with my bones crumbling - unsure about how to best mount a defense.