Introduction
Welcome to a Suite Free Course, written for you, with your bone health in mind, but remember, the information provided here is just that--information only. It is not intended to take the place of consulting with your doctor about your medical condition, diagnosis, or treatment. ALWAYS consult a physician.
Osteoporosis is a disease of silence. It does not announce its coming. It insists not only on visitation rights, but rights of domicile. This is a vicious guest bringing a housewarming gift of an often painful path to one's dolmen, if not evicted early.
I know this unwanted guest well, because it lives with us every day. For you see, I am the caregiver to one who has met and succumbed to its demands--my mother.
My mother is 98 years of age. She will be 99 in October of 2005. We are not really sure when osteoporosis set up housekeeping in her body, because my family and I lived in the Orient for many years, during which time we seldom visited.
The first indication I received of her silent osteoporosis was during a visit from her in 1977 when she was age 70--two years younger than I am at present. We had been shopping. When we arrived home, she opened the car door to exit, promptly falling and painfully injuring her right wrist. At the emergency room an x-ray disclosed a fractured wrist. A first indicator, but missed by doctors, radiologists, nurses and yours truly. Oouch!
Well, the silent years passed as internal damage was taking place, but something else had taken place very early in her life which, at about 30 years of age, would have been an early warning had doctors been alert. The little bones in her ears fractured and had to be surgically removed. Consequently, loss of hearing progressed. Doctors now know that this is an early warning sign of osteoporosis.
Now my mother has a severe hump on her back. When she stands up, she looks like an inverted "L." How sad that seniors must endure the crippling effects of osteoporosis when early detection and treatment could prevent pain and deformity.
With no diagnosis, this condition was free to thrive in her and do considerable damage which, of course, it has done. She has sustained multiple falls, severe bruising, fracture after fracture of her vertebrae, a fractured pelvis twice, and multiple fractured ribs time after time. The scoliosis of her spine has pushed and shoved her internal organs to the point that her pain is often severe. Her lungs are not "centered" correctly and she now has frequent difficulty in breathing. Her hip bones are up close to the sides of her chest.
In these readings I will share a little bit about her condition, which is not unusual for the multitude of seniors who suffer with this deforming bone disease. But this is not about her. She is only my example, one example, to show what we all need to know and do in order not to end up in a painful condition.
There are excellent treatments now that help those with osteoporosis to lead normal lives. This course will tell you how--for you, for yours, for others.
Lessons
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