Help me welcome Priya to our member interviews! Priya is a member here at OsteoporosisConnection who frequently contributes with Shareposts and thought-provoking questions. Priya lives in India and tells us about his experience with Actonel and osteoporosis treatment in another country. Let's get started with Priya's story.
How did you find out you had bone loss, did you have a DEXA scan or some other test? How long ago was this and what was the diagnosis, osteoporosis or osteopenia?
I had no idea about osteoporosis and bone loss right up to 2007 when I was 65 years old. Due to my genes perhaps age never showed up on my face and figure so that people frequently thought I was in my 30's, except for my whitening hair. I knew I always had thin bones but did not even know of any such thing as osteoporosis all my life!! I had heard of arthritis and bone pains, but never of bone loss! I suppose this would still be the case with the majority of people in India. I had been walking a lot as a school boy in India in the hills, but with little milk in the diet. But later when I was in the US at Harvard in College I was taking milk three times a day for almost four years! I know my fingers were very thing - thinner than that of many girls! I attributed that to lack of milk in my childhood as I always hated the taste of milk in India!
In 2007 I had a strained hamstring and went to an orthopedist in New Delhi. He thumped me on the spine with his fist and said the sound wasn't good. He ordered x-rays - and said that I had fractured vertebrae. Then he ordered a bone density test. And he said the results were terrible in the range of - 3.6 to - 4 everywhere. He called a pharmaceutical agent who was conveniently present and advised Forteo injections as an emergency treatment. Since they were much too expensive for me to afford I went to another doctor and got another DEXA scan done the next day. This machine showed I was a borderline case of osteoporosis and had osteopenia!! The results ranged from -2.6 to -1.7. It was the first time in my life that I found out what osteoporosis and bone loss were all about! The second doctor also told me that my x-rays had been normal and there were no fractured vertebrae as the first doctor had said.
Did your doctor recommend an osteoporosis medication or did you just increase your supplements and exercise?
Since I had no idea what to do the doctor prescribed Actonel 35 mg once a week, as well as Calcium Citrate Maleate tablets twice a day. He said nothing about exercise or any other change in the diet. In fact he just looked at the DEXA scan results and set down Actonel on paper - and that was it. I still didn't understand what was happening to me and what osteoporosis was all about, until I started studying the subject on the internet.
Does your insurance cover osteoporosis medications? If so, and you took one of the medications did you have any trouble with it?
In India very few people - only those who can afford the high costs - have anything known as health insurance. The Government Servants are covered by some health plan, but for the rest of the population it is just a free for all - get your medical aid at your own costs, for better or worse, at good hospitals or in the hands of quacks.
