FEB 28, 18 .. MALE OSTEOPOROSIS
Because I originated all of these reports about my health issues, and because some of you are interested and following along with us, I will continue with these updates. Once I get past all of them, in the future, I will carefully consider whether-or-not to ever again walk down this slippery path of medical updates.
You can’t tell the players without a score card.
Medically speaking, I (think that I currently) have four issues (five IF I count Patti’s issues which most certainly affect me as well as Patti) going on here : Left hip replacement / Male osteoporosis / Left Kidney issues / Vertigo / Patti updates.
One by one, below are updates.
Because my total medical focus yesterday (Tuesday the 27th of February) was upon my male osteoporosis, I will begin with this ( almost non ) issue.
MALE OSTEOPOROSIS
Osteoporosis is a disorder in which the bones become increasingly porous, brittle, and subject to fracture, owing to loss of calcium and other mineral components, sometimes resulting in pain, decreased height, and skeletal deformities: common in older persons, primarily postmenopausal women, but also associated with long-term steroid therapy and certain endocrine disorders.
Because some people with broken hips did not break their hip by falling, they fell because first their hip broke thus causing them to fall, I’ll begin with this issue.
The issue regarding male osteoporosis originated with me and my Mayo Clinic doctors in December of 2016. In answering my question to them from my hospital bed after my hip replacement surgery (“Did my hip break causing me to fall?”) they assurred me that NO, it did not appear to them that my hip broke first thus causing me to fall in the Dubai Airport in the United Arab Emirates on November 25th, 2016.
They then went on to say, “Would you like to be tested for male osteoporosis?”
I said yes. I was tested in January of 2017 and told, “Yes you have male osteoporosis.”
I was prescribed 150mg of Risedronate to be taken once monthly. I was also put onto a twice-daily regimen of taking : One (2,000 IU) tiny capsule of vitamin D3. One (250mg) pill of Magnesium. One (600mg) pill of calcium.
My Mayo doctor told me : I will see you in two (2) years.
The husband (a fellow senior citizen and an extremely brilliant PhD scientist at Los Alamos Laboratories dating back to the 1950’s I believe) of one of Patti’s friends in the Santa Fe, New Mexico, area told me : “I was on Risedronate. It did nothing at all for me in regards to strengthening my bone density. BUT it did stop further degeneration. However I stopped taking it.”
Armed with the above tid-bit of knowledge with-which-to-launch a mini-attack upon my Mayo doctor, and knowing that I was going to be here at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix because of my left hip and left kidney issues, I politely asked him to check my progress out after my first year on Risedronate. He said NO and told me to come back in January of 2019 following two full years on my regimen. I told him that I wanted a bone density scan during this visit. Back and forth, and back and forth again we wrestled over this issue.
He gave-in. He ordered a bone density scan that I had performed (along with a Kidney MRI scan) on Wednesday the 14th of February.
Prior to all of this I had gone around my Mayo doctor like a testosterone-driven 21-year old male racing car driver passes an eighty-year-old little-old-lady going to Sunday church services in her restored 1927 Model T Ford, I had my Hong Kong doctor perform a bone density scan at St. Teresa’s Hospital in Hong Kong last July of 2017. He said, “Yes you have male osteoporosis. It is on-the-line marginal. We prescribe Risedronate 35mg / once weekly and NOT 150mg / once monthly.”
Yesterday Patti and I had a very calm and almost enjoyable 10-minute visit with my highly respected Mayo endocrinologist.
He said that yes, the Risedronate regimen is working and for me to come back in two years in 2020. To keep up my good work and finally that he did NOT want the bone density scan that he eventally ordered and that I had performed on February 15th at my insistence, because he felt it is just more unnecessary x-ray radiation.
LEFT HIP REPLACEMENT
It is now a non-issue. I will return in five years for a look-see.
LEFT KIDNEY ISSUE
It is now a non-issue. Yesterday morning I spoke by telephone with my Mayo doctors PA up in Rochester, Minnesota, and we will look again at my left kidney IF / and when it bothers me at some future date.
VERTIGO ISSUE
It remains alive and kicking and totally un-resolved. What to do? I have an appointment with my Mayo primary care doctor on Monday the 9th of April 2018.
PATTI UPDATE
At 4pm today, the 28th of February, Patti has a physical therapy appointment regarding her back.
Patti is also scheduled for five future physical therapy appointments on : March 6/9/21/28 and April 4, 2018.
Over And Out for now.
Cap and Patti