Date: 2003-04-29
To: Osteo... What?
Miles today: 0.0

¢Ms Pfeil? Hi! This is Kelly. I¢m Dr _____¢s assistant.   I¢m returning your call and want to inform you of the results of your bone density scan. I¢m reading from the radiologist¢s report now. According to the Z score, and I don¢t know what a Z score is, your score came in lower showing much more extensive bone loss for your age group match. Your T score, and again I don¢t know what that indicates, reports a low score also. The radiologist¢s diagnosis indicates Osteopenia. His remedy is to exercise and take extra calcium. I¢m sure Dr ____ is going to want to talk to you too. Don¢t know if he wants you to have over the counter calcium or prescribed. If you have any questions, and I¢m sure you will, please feel free to call me. Oh yeah, your boot orthotics is in and ready for pick-up. Please stop by anytime. Have a nice day. Good-bye.¢Huh? Osteo what? Uhhh¢¦ I take calcium.************************************************************************That was the message left on my answering service today. Need I even tell you that it came as a bit of a surprise? So much so that I had to listen to it at least three times in a row before anything actually sunk in? Whatever was she talking about? My bone density test was weeks ago. Something Ortho #2 and I agreed would be a ¢nice to do¢ prior to my return to the trail but not a mandatory thing because there¢s no concern of the past events happening again. Since it has been weeks, and it was only supposed to have taken a couple of days to get the results, I was going with the old belief that ¢no news is good news¢ when it comes to doctors. Shows how much I know. The new belief, if you haven¢t heard from them in a reasonable amount of time (define reasonable) then calls should be made ¢¦ and often! Okay, test time. No, not a bone test. How many of you can actually define Osteopenia? Another question, how many of you have ever even heard of Osteopenia? Be honest now. I will be ¢ I¢d never even heard the word before. Osteoporosis is the word you hear bantered about once you pass forty. Not much in the beginning but more and more as you creep toward fifty, sixty and seventy. In your 40s though you learn that it¢s something you may have to consider further down the line but not now. Not at 46 years old. And that¢s Osteoporosis anyway. Not this Osteopenia thing. Well, thanks to computers and the Internet, I am now a much more informed individual. Allow me to share with you my newfound knowledge. I like to share. Osteopenia is defined as a bone density that is ¢somewhat low¢. Isn¢t that informative? It wasn¢t even until 1994 that anyone decided that there was such a thing as Osteopenia and that¢s only because some committee got together and decided to create four diagnostic categories: Normal (my preference), Osteopenia (me), Osteoporosis (future me?) and Established osteoporosis (I think not). It seems that these categories depend on the bone density, and the presence of fractures. Uh oh. As I understand this, the committee set cut-off values that were relative to young healthy individuals. I like that. The cut-off value for Osteopenia is a bone density between 1 and 2.5 standard deviations below young people. Young is defined as about 30 in this case. Osteoporosis is numbers lower than 2.5. Yeah, I know, confusing¢¦ just go with it. Anyway, there are bunches of other boring statistics thrown in to prove the committee¢s decision but I won¢t waste our time with those. The bottom line of this is that my numbers were obviously not in the normal category but above 2.5 whatever¢s.We all know that bone density naturally declines with age. What I didn¢t know is that the risk of a fracture will double with every decade past fifty. A woman aged 55 with osteopenia has about a 2% chance/year of having a fracture, and a woman aged 75 with osteopenia has about an 8% chance/year. Uh oh¢¦. again. I¢m only 46 -- broke an ankle at 35, a femur at 44 and cracked a tibia at 44. The odds aren¢t looking in my favor.Treatment of osteopenia also seems to depend on age. (I¢m beginning to see a theme here.) For women between 50 and 70, the best prevention is calcium and exercise.   Now wait a minute. Since the day after the busted femur (10 Sep 01) I have been taking quite a heavy dose of calcium -- the kind that¢s absorbed in the bone too. Not only that but with the amount of milk I drink normally, it would be cheaper if I just bought the cow! As for the exercise, that¢s been high on my list also for the past year plus. Granted I wasn¢t allowed to do much while mending from the last two fractures but starting about a year ago I went full boar -- joined a gym, hired a trainer and actually showed up on my own. Strength training was the thing. Cardio too. So what¢s up with that? The only thing I can surmise is that it¢s not working for me because I¢m not 50 yet! Go figure! On an up note, ¢the committee¢ does go on to say that young women (women under 50?) with osteopenia should not be frightened (yeah right) but should be aware that they may develop osteoporosis in the future. (And that doesn¢t frighten you?) All I have to say to this is -- who are these people and their committee? Their bedside manner sucks! Okay, with all that said and until I talk to Ortho #2, I¢ve decided that the best course of action at this point in time is for me to continue working out, take my calcium pills, buy a cow, and stay off the Internet. Let¢s hope he calls soon. I enjoy the Internet and the new grass is coming in and cows can do major damage!Oh yeah, want to hear something funny? The reason I called Ortho #2 in the first place was not to get the results of my bone density test (¢no word is good word¢) but because I wanted my new boot inserts for breaking in purposes! Maybe calling isn¢t the best thing to do after all. Duh!Osteo -- phewey!