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missellen2010 Asked February 2010

My mother has osteoporosis and 2 compound fractures - only one is healed. The bone specialist said he can't do anything. What should I do?

My 79-year-old mother has osteoporosis and 2 compound fractures on T9 and T 12 One is healed, the bone specialist said he cant do anything...

lmw124 Feb 2010
I really feel for you, my mom had fractures in her back also. She was in constant pain the first month, even just lying on her back. The bone doctor told her there was nothing he could do, her osteoporesis is so bad, and can't have surgery because of congestive heart failure. After being in the nursing home for about a month, with physical therapy she improved some, enough so she could walk around with her walker after about six months, however she was still having a lot of pain when walking, then the doctor prescribed a morphone pain patch and it gradually got better, but after six years she still cannot stand up for more than 3-5 minutes without pain, and her back is all bent over now. I was her live-in caretaker for five years, then last summer she started falling down a lot, now she is in a nursing home. It was hard for me to let go of the caretaking, in a way my time is still consumed with her as I go visit every day and take care of all of her financial matters. She was taking bone pills for several years, but then had to stop because it was affecting her teeth, she has a lot of dental problems now because of the bone pills, now she has facial and jaw pain in addition to the back pain. She is on even more pain medication now for the face pain and it is hard to see her going downhill and sleepy all the time from the pain meds, guess the most we can do now is try to keep her as comfortable as possible.
In terms of suggestions, ask her doctor about the pain patch, it is a lot better to manage than pain pills, it could help her, and also investigate physical therapy.

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