is there much help for a t12 fracture, because I am having back pain just doing everyday things, I live on my own now and at 75 I think I will probably end up in a nursing home, I don't know how long I will be able to keep going, is there anyone else in the same situation.
t12 fracture : is there much help for a... - Bone Health and O...
t12 fracture
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Radars
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Hi. I also fractured T11 and 12 last year. Having been told by the Fr it was sciatica. !! X ray and Ct scan proved otherwise. The pain had been horrendous but consultant told me it can take up to 18 months for the pain to disappear. I’m 14 months in so far and yes it is easing the worst bit is having lost height and I do believe a lot of the pain is down to correcting your posture. It’s so easy to have poor posture as it appears to be more comfortable but it’s not doing us any good. I see that you’re in the UK. If you wish to contact me I can tell you have a marvellous lady who does one-to-one appointments and also zoom classes. On the Internet should you be interested she is extremely knowledgeable. Also I would suggest that you up your magnesium intake although I stress I have no medical training!! Magnesium is meant to help hugely with muscle, relaxing. If you are interested to read about Scleusset mineral salts…. Extremely interesting. Hope some of the above might be of interest to you. Kind regards, Jane.
Yep. My T12 is severe. Now it’s severe it doesn’t give me so much pain as the higher fractures give me. I find it difficult to walk very far and things like cooking and washing up can be agony for me. If I sit in my recliner or lie in my bed I’ve no pain at all.
what other things are you suffering from, does t12 make you bent over.
Me too...only place I'm fully comfortable now. I'm only 62, get a little scared about future. (There's apparently debate as to whether I fractured T 11 and 12 along with L 1, T 6 and 7, maybe T 8 (not confirmed, but I know what they feel like now.) Point is, already well on my way to a whole noew physiology.) God bless.
Have you not had a Dexa scan. They saw mine first on X-ray then when I had four go together they thought a first it was my lungs because I’ve got a problem with that. They did a scan and said it’s not your lungs, it’s four new spinal fractures.
Me? I had a DEXA...they didn't say anything about fractures from that. I asked for x-rays.
They did an X-ray for me after I went to the physio. I think she realised something wasn’t right. Then straight after I was in hospital with my T12. I’d already had two higher up fractures.
sorry to hear that, I've got that all to come.
Not necessarily. Some get away with it. I never discovered my bone trouble until my spine was -5.5. It depends on how bad your bones are and whether you are on the right treatment. I’ve been on some kind of treatment for about five years. But haven’t had any more broken bones since 2020. So I think the bone meds are working. I can’t do what I used to do. I just potter along and do what I can.
Wow, -5.5. I'm at -4.6, or, was for my first and only DEXA. Glad to hear you haven't fractured since 2020, that treatments appear to be working. What was/is your age? When did you first notice that things were very wrong with your back? Just trying to anticipate, determine how much other features of aging might factor in. I'm 62, have definitely lost some muscle/strength particularly in my back, as it has gotten harder to do things without hurting it, and I don't think more muscle would have prevented the fractures I've had. But (I'm supposing) more muscle might keep one more functional/reduce pain? I've never been good at doing back specific back exercises; I've always either aimed to burn calories, strengthen my heart, stay fit enough to run. If I took classes, often back stuff would be part of the program, but I'm not taking classes now, (been injured multiple times in classes,) so...my back is even more neglected. Am trying to gear up to start using resistance bands, other things...just make doing these things a habit. My upper back is a plague to my very existence now, posture needs correction, only way I will get there is strength. (Talking myself up here. 😜) It's ironic/frustrating that the more it feels like we can't do a thing, that our body is actively resisting it, the more we HAVE to do that thing, but, here we are.
I had my first fracture in 2013 when I must have been 69. The Dr just gave me tramadol which was too strong for me. I couldn’t keep awake. I then had the next one in 2018 and the Dr sent me for. Physio who asked me if I’d ever had an X-ray. I was sent for that and it came back that I had two fractures. One was an older one. I went for the Dexa scan and that’s when it was -5.5. I then shortly after had my T12 go which I actually felt drop. I was in hospital for twelve days with that. Unable to walk at all. I couldn’t stand the pressure. After the T12 I had to give up walking very far, cleaning and doing ironing. I can iron two or three articles and my back is killing me. I then went to 2020 and I had to wait for my Denosumab injection because my vitamin D dropped so low. Because I had to wait I had four more fractures.
So you're 79 now? I know it's not fun to be in pain, don't hear me minimizing that!, but shoot, I don't iron now! I have to rest my back after doing dishes. (I'm resting it now.)
Do you know how you got your fractures? Were you doing something specific or was it just...wear and tear on fragile bones?
By my reckoning, I'm ahead of you! By 69, if I don't arrest this, I won't be walking. Hopefully catching this while I do still have pretty decent strength will work in my favor, but so far, it's been a two-edged sword.
Thanks for sharing!
Hi! My fractures were all spontaneous. My first fracture which was not recognised was when I was 69. If I had been tested then I maybe could have been saved the rest and maybe I wouldn’t be disabled now. Like you washing up kills me. Getting my dinner does too. I have to sit back and rest before I eat it. I can walk but not too far. The further I walk the more my back aches and goes over. I don’t take pain killers because as soon as I sit down within a couple of minutes my pain goes away. Before all this I was as active as anyone. I was definitely more active than anyone else my age. I could walk down the High Street with no problems. I have got a scooter now that if I need to do a lot of shopping I take that. It’s brilliant. I was very self conscious at first but now I find it an absolute must. I’m waiting now for a nice day to go Christmas shopping.
keep going, I am going to try and get a spinal x-ray to see whats what, but you have to see a gp for a referral, it's murder trying to get an appointment, I am going to see how much it is if I go private.
This is what they are trying to do. Make people go private. Keep trying to make an appointment. Maybe try to book avforward one. That’s what I did. I had to wait a few weeks but I got in eventually. If everyone had private appointments the Government will say well the NHS is not really needed. I was a little girl when the NHS first came in. Before that my Father had Double Pneumonia and was really ill for weeks. And I had Double Pneumonia with TB. Neither of us had any treatment at that time . Mum couldn’t afford it. She had to go bean and pea picking to feed us. Do we want to go back to that. To be honest I would keep trying to get an appointment. Phone up as early as you can in the morning.
I will definitely be working to avoid getting worse, that's for sure. Glad your pain goes away when you sit! Mine mostly does, but after I work for several hours, every muscle and quite a few nerves are screaming. Just sitting doesn't relieve it, and while reclining nearly flat with my arms over my head takes the immediate pressure off, I know it's there. I eat in that position on work days. (Well, I put my arms back down. :-p) It gets messy.
Have fun shopping soon!
Ha ha! Sorry I was just thinking of you eating with your arms over your head. 😴🤣🤣
There’s no way I could do a days work now. I’d have a job to even get somewhere.
I’ve got to be in my recliner with my legs rose slightly for the pain to go. I can’t sit on a dining chair for long.
I can't do a full day either. My back is screaming after 2 haircuts, and I feel like...a frozen brick of pain that's on fire after four hours. Fortunately, standing isn't an issue, and I'm still in pretty decent shape generally. It's my upper back, and I'm pretty sure my job caused the fractures. But, maybe because I can walk/stand, I can't get anyone to say my job adversely impacts me, so, because I make more money in less time and have more flexibility (plus, who'd hire/train me for anything "better" at this point in my life?) I keep doing it.
Speaking of fractures, my first ones were missed, too. I also wonder, had we caught this 4 years ago, would I be in better shape now? But...in the end, it probably doesn't matter. We all have something we contend with. I don't know what I'll look like in five years, or even next year, but today I can walk (and if I use trekking poles, my back doesn't even get tired. Have you ever used them? Where your pain is located, they might not help, but they do take a lot of pressure off, help my posture,) and I'm grateful that for the most part it's only my back that hurts. (My hips aren't good either, but I don't even notice them.)
❤️
You sound exactly lay like me and I get attendance allowance that helps me pay for things to help me. I’ve been able to buy a scooter with some of it. My spine is from the waist up. My hips aren’t that good either and I do get pain at the bottom of my spine but not too bad. My T12 is the worst asi I said then it’s 3. 4. 5. 6. And 8 I think. I’ve had fractures on fractures too. My T12 is now severe whatever that means.
There is no way I could hold my arms out long enough to cut hair. Let alone was it. I struggle to shower, wash or clean my teeth now.
I had a straight back six years ago. I’ve got a photo somewhere of me in Pisa with my granddaughter Son and Daughter in law. I’m a hunchback now. I even had a job to lie in the dentist chair last time I went because my hump gets in the way. I get the hump with it too. 😴🤣😹
Man, I already don't have a straight back. So many people have poor posture, you probably wouldn't notice my extra curve, but I can see it. I'm three inches shorter than I used to be--some of it is not standing fully straight, some is normal shrinkage, but some is full on aggressive compression. I definitely look strange to me--I look like my grandma, when she was 95 years old. Ribs pretty much sitting on my hips, lower back curving too much too (I think I stick my belly, supported by my lower back, out to compensate for something--I don't feel super unstable right now, but for awhile I did, it felt like anything might happen when I was upright. so...I started adapting, I guess. It has all happened very fast for me, too. I don't know when I lost the first inch and a half, (never got measured) but the last inch was between January and July, and half an inch was between May of the previous year, and January of this year. I could FEEL that last inch. it was like we'd done all the shrinkage that might go unnoticed, now we were into where muscles were being folded in on themselves and I knew my rib cage didn't belong where it was. Yet, my doctor still didn't measure height when I saw him (a new one, but he knew I wasn't happy with the old one, and why,) in July; I did it, discovered the additional height loss, nessaged him and asked, "Don't you think this matters for people with osteoporosis?" and he admitted, yes, it does, they just try to save time and not do it because most people just don't change that much. This is also the man who exclaimed during my appointment that he just couldn't understand why I was i this so seriously. I don't have a lot of confidence in the medical profession these days....
What's an "attendance allowance"?
I'm bandying about the idea of attempting to get social security disability here, but with my disinterested doctors, my ability to function/push through, and my husband's income, I probably can't get it. Doctor said, "Get a lawyer," wouldn't commit to any assessment of my condition or how it might affect my ability to work. I have a friend who got disability for ADHD (it took some work, though; took her doctors going to bat for her. I had no idea ADHD could be a disability at age 59...serna like you made it that far, you can probably figure out how to get to 65...but they approved it.)
Speaking of work...this woman with terminal cancer that I work with--ber medications cost $13,000 a month. Granted, she's terminal, so...there's an endpoint, but, the state is covering that cost for her. Meanwhile, maybe because I'm NOT terminal and not that old, our insurance won't cover Evenity (for a year) for me. Not "medically necessary," they say. It IS medically necessary, they just don't want to foot the $1800 or so it would cost them per month.
I wouldn't even get very much for social security disability because I've mostly worked part-time, right? Maybe $900 a month? But it would be enough to allow me to quit my job (I'd still see private clients,) and my not working, in turn, might slow the damage, end up costing everyone less later. And maybe they WOULD see it that way, just...I'm not sure it's worth hiring an attorney. Just...I know there's no real way to be truly "fair" to everyone, but sometimes it seems like you actually get penalized if you DID take care of yourself (I really tried! no smoking, no addictiobs, healthy weight, regular exercise, all the things they say to do.) Not that I think "the state" owes me; it's more just not wanting to be truly and completely disabled in five years and trying to figure out how I can do that without penalizing my husband (who appreciates the little bit of income I scrounge up.) We'll see. I have my next DEXA in January. If I'm worse, I'm...done. (I say.)
do you drink any alcohol and enjoy your self on occasions.
It does happen quickly. One minute you’re fine and doing everything that needs doing then if you are like me in the evening I was made virtually disabled. After that they all started going. At least the Denosumab has now slowed it down. My cousin has been on Denosumab for a few years longer than me. I think her spine was fine. They found she had Osteoporosis after a fracture to her leg. She’s gone on I think about seven years and all of a sudden she’s had a lower down spinal fracture that has splintered. They wanted to operate but her blood pressure is too high. So they sent her home on very strong pain killers. It’s quite scary to think it could happen.
hi,if you are at work all day how do you get the 1,200 mgs of calcium a day.
I don't. I'm actually not even taking any calcium right now because there's so much confusing info...don't take it if you're taking Vit D and K2, can't take it if you ate foods with oxylates, can't even eat food with oxylates even if that food also has calcium in it, and on and on. I try to eat a balanced diet but there's no way I get 1200 mg through diet, either. So...yeah.
thanks oxalate stop your body from absorbing calcium.
So my husband says. He's a food nazi, always has been...so he's super miffed that HE was diagnosed with osteoporosis at age 59. He figures it has to be because he ate Greek yogurt with almonds and whole wheat bread (made by him from wheat he ground himself,) every day for years. I was having a green smoothie the other day, put probably 4 cups of "power greens" in it, and my husband is all, "Hope there's no spinach in it...." What CAN you eat? What ARE we supposed to do? As a person who has been trying to manage my weight since age 9 or so (I actually think my husband's osteoporosis might have more to do with his being undernourished--he's so careful, (and worried about body fat) that I often wondered if he wasn't borderline anorexic,) though I never got thin, just--I mean, saying no to so many things for so long--all of this almost makes me want to say the heck with it all--I'm going to eat fast food and sugar and just...quit worrying about it. Fat lot of good our carefulness did, eh? But then I think about diabetes and other things I haven't had to worry about yet (I do have Hashimotos/hypothyroidism--that's no picnic, really, either,) and I go, meh, probably still better to do your best. Still, what IS best?
My Dr has prescribed Cacium and vitamin D. If we can’t trust our Drs who can we. I trust mine. He has been fantastic with me.
I wish I could say the same.
You were in the hospital for T 12? I had trouble getting a muscle relaxer....
It was a severe one. I couldn’t walk to the loo or even get into bed. I live alone and couldn’t even get to the loo.
You should be demanding an X-ray and then a Dexa.you need to know what is what. If you have all the fractures you think you have you shouldn’t even be working. It’s disgusting they are making Women work until 65. How many people over 60 do you know who haven’t got problems. I’ve got a friend that has been made disabled by fractures of the bottom of her spine. She can barely walk I think she’s 63 now but he back went at about 61.
I agree! I have had a DEXA and x-rays; no one is impressed. Where I work, it's crazy--I thought I'd be the oldest there (I only started there a year ago,) but I'm not. The oldest is 69--she goes nowhere without her massaging heat pads. One in her mid-50s has stage 4 lung cancer and is only 4'10" tall, so has to constantly lift her arms over her head. This apparently resulted in a blood clot in her arm, so what did they do? Removed ribs in her upper chest, to reduce the constriction. I don't know about some of the others, but even young hairdressers suffer. We're short staffed, too, so it's like, if I quit, I just make it worse for those who stay. Hairdressers are bonkers...I never thought I was, but peer pressure man. I'm going to have to have a doctor's note before I will not feel like a ginormous baby. 🤔
My hairdresser had breast cancer stage 4 which I believe is the worst. She recovered and is now back working. I live in a retirement block and she does a lot of peoples hair in here.
It’s not right you have to suffer this pain. Why do you feel obliged to the person who took you on? Would they worry about getting rid of you if they wanted to. You must think of yourself and not worry about others. In most cases I would tell people not to think of themselves but if you are in the agony as I am you are justified to speak to your Dr to get signed on and finish work. I know you maybe wouldn’t get as much but is it worth fighting for. You might end up with a lot more if you keep doing the same movements.
It’s worth thinking about.
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