As advised to Erica Rimlinger
I wasn’t taking dangers once I fell. I used to be strolling on a paved path within the park with my grown kids once I simply tripped on seemingly nothing. I lurched ahead, leaving my ft behind me and my higher physique hurtling towards the pavement. As an expert pianist, I believed I’d educated myself to not use my arms to catch myself throughout a fall, however when the second got here, instincts overcame intentions, and I landed on my arms.
Embarrassed, I acquired up shortly and insisted I used to be effective. However after just a few steps I started to doubt that. My arms, wrists and arms have been in a whole lot of ache. We circled and went house.
The subsequent day, my elbows have been bruising, swelling and radiating ache. One elbow felt worse than the opposite. I suspected it was damaged but in addition thought it was unusual that such a brief fall would generate the momentum to interrupt bones.
Since my work requires the usage of my arms and arms, I couldn’t let this damage go unexamined by a healthcare supplier (HCP). I’m a full-time music professor and musician performing each on campus in addition to in skilled venues across the nation. My skill to play music is my livelihood.
An X-ray confirmed my suspicions: A bone in my elbow was damaged. After my different elbow continued to throb and swell, I had it X-rayed as effectively, and there was a damaged bone in that elbow too.
I’d by no means damaged a bone in my life and now instantly I had two damaged bones. After some web analysis, I got here throughout a potential clarification for my sudden fragility: osteoporosis, a illness that weakens your bones. I referred to as my HCP and requested in the event that they thought a bone density test could be a good suggestion for me. I used to be solely 58 years outdated: Most insurance coverage usually gained’t pay for bone density scans till age 60, however since I’d had a fracture and my HCP agreed I ought to have the check, it was coated by insurance coverage.
I had two threat elements for osteoporosis earlier than the autumn: I used to be a middle-aged lady with a small physique body. Nonetheless, I didn’t produce other threat elements: Osteoporosis didn’t run in my household, I by no means smoked, I took a every day multivitamin for girls and I exercised frequently.
After the bone density scan confirmed I had osteoporosis, I felt frail and susceptible and nervous about strolling. I’d all the time been a runner, a walker and a hiker. However now I prevented these actions. I used to be afraid of falling and breaking different bones.
I began taking a medicine to scale back bone loss. I began swimming as a substitute of strolling. Swimming helped in so some ways. I gained power, confidence and arm mass. I had all the time practiced yoga however now targeted extra effort on constructing steadiness and power throughout my observe.
2025
My elbows healed, and I used to be grateful my wrists hadn’t damaged. I may nonetheless play piano. Along with educating, I’m additionally a church musician. When my bones have been damaged, I missed only one Sunday on the piano. I wasn’t taking part in significantly effectively the week I returned, and I needed to postpone a recording venture and delay a live performance, however I may play piano, and I used to be grateful for that. I had began to play guitar for a music remedy program, incomes my certification in it simply earlier than my fall, and I needed to relearn that talent after the bones in my elbows healed.
My fall was three years in the past, and my physician ordered a second bone density check just a few months in the past. I used to be amazed to study that the treatment I’d taken had reversed my bone loss. I’m nonetheless in danger for osteoporosis once more sooner or later, however I now have a much less extreme model of it referred to as osteopenia, which suggests my bone density is decrease than regular however not low sufficient to be osteoporosis. Most individuals discover out they’ve osteopenia earlier than it develops into osteoporosis – like having prediabetes earlier than a diabetes analysis. My diagnostic journey took me from the illness to the warning stage.
I’m sharing my story to assist girls perceive the significance of taking cost of their bone well being. I need folks to know that bone well being evolves — and you’ll enhance your bone density with therapy and wholesome way of life adjustments.
I intend to maintain my bone well being shifting in the appropriate route. Along with my treatment, I take vitamin D and calcium dietary supplements and do workouts that construct bone power. I’m grateful to proceed to play music and benefit from the issues I like, together with mountaineering, which I’d been avoiding since my fall. On a current go to to my son in Colorado, my husband and I went mountaineering within the mountains. I used mountaineering poles for added stability, however I didn’t let worry of falling cease me. Each time these poles hit the bottom, it was music to my ears.
This instructional useful resource was created with assist from Amgen and UCB.
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Our Actual Girls, Actual Tales are the genuine experiences of real-life girls. The views, opinions and experiences shared in these tales should not endorsed by HealthyWomen and don’t essentially mirror the official coverage or place of HealthyWomen.
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