Last year I suffered a nontraumatic femur fracture of my left femur. In July, 2008 I read an article that described femur fractures identical to mine and a possible link to long term use of Fosamax. Since then I have had a bone scan which shows increased activity in my right femur which could very possibly be a stress fracture. I am very worried about the risk of a fracture occurring in my right femur. I would love to communicate with others who have had this experience. I am also interested in learning about how I can protect myself from this happening again.
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Thanks, Vicki, and I do see where there seems to be evidence you can't ignore on the Fosamax connection. If it's so "effective" as destroying bones, maybe someone can figure out how to use Fosamax as an easy way to
June 20, 2009 - 6:54pmde-bone a salmon! As for my stress fracture, it happened the day after I jumped up and down fifty times on a hard wood floor, wearing a 10-lb. weighted vest -- I had read such an exercise could increase bone density and ignored all warnings about warming up and "consulting your doctor" if you already have osteoporosis. I've been having soreness in the back of my right thigh, but I can walk just fine -- I'm thinking it may be a very slight hairline thing, due to lack of much real pain and nothing having shown up (yet) on x-ray. Mainly the soreness is when I sit and -- unless it's just wishful thinking -- about two months out from the injury, I may be feeling a little less discomfort these past couple of days. Depending on how it feels Monday, I may go ahead and get an MRI, since my doc said that can confirm the fracture. Hope I don't need the rod -- even with low bone density, isn't it possible for such an injury to heal on its own?
Okay, thanks, for your good wishes, and -- well, with our bones seeming to be "going away," seems appropriate to sign off with Bone Voyage!
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UPDATER FROM "ANONYMOUS" WHO FRACTURED FEMUR FROM JUMPING WITH WEIGHTED VEST:
June 29, 2009 - 2:55pmIt's been nine days since my previous post and ten weeks or so since initial injury and I'm feeling 95% normal!
I can sit without pain and bend to tie my shoes normally -- and no, I did not require a rod. So even though I have osteoporosis (and ostenpenia in some parts), my stress fracture of the femur healed in a normal time frame and without surgery. Obviously, everyone's case is different, but I hope this offers encouragement to some of you.
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Good for you for NOT taking Fosamax! But sorry to hear about your stress fractures. Hope you have plans and guidance from your doctor to get rods in there soon, because they will not heal on their own satisfactorily and that places you at a very high risk for a complete break. I am here to tell you that you do not want that to happen! However, regarding Fosamax, there are certain signs that go along with the Fosamax connection, such as a "bulge" at the break site etc. I do not hold this against my doctors for prescribing it, but the drug companies are just too big and too much! Doctors are lulled into prescribing the "newest and best" for their patients and are rewarded in many ways for doing so. I do feel that a doctor should have said after 3-4 years of usage that it had done it's job instead of keeping me on it for 10 years and a good year and a half beyond when the FDA issued a warning regarding the breaks. Already there was plenty of evidence that it caused a rotting jawbone. At any rate, I wish you well and though some things in life happen because they happen, there are too many coincidences with the Fosamax connection to be ignored. Vicki
June 19, 2009 - 11:10amThis Comment
For those of you who are kicking yourselves -- if you have enough range of motion to do so! -- for taking Fosamax, consider that your injuries may have occurred regardless. I am a 49-year-old woman with osteopenia in certain areas, osteoporosis in others, who has never taken Fosamax or similar meds; I've been having thigh pain, went to the orthopedic doc and found that my femur has a stress fracture. Obviously, I can't say whether your injuries were or were not caused by Fosamax. My point is to possibly make you feel better knowing that, just maybe, you did nothing -- including taking Fosamax -- to increase your risk of injury. When bone density is below what is should be, these things can happen.
June 19, 2009 - 10:55amThis Comment
Thanks for the input, and you are probably right that low bone density can lead to stress fractures of the femur. However, I think you will find that many of the cases presented here are not stress fractures but spontaneous shearing of bone and complete displacement fractures....not from low bone mass or density, but from low bone quality. My wife is 42, and her Xray shows plenty of bone mass and density in her femur. Despite this, he bone snapped out of nowhere because they where essentially rendered into chalk by the medication she was prescribed for 14 years. The problem is the intended mechanism of action in bisphosphonates is to retard the natural process of bone metabolism and regeneration. In my opinion, it was absolutely reckless of the manufacturers not to consider ALL the effects of the mechanism of action, not just the positive ones that made for a blockbuster selling opportunity. I also find it completely implausible that these long term effects were not forseeable. They may not have been quantifiable, but they were forseeable. Heck, if I had known how these drugs work and what they do to the natural cycle of bone, even an average schmoe like me would ask....."Hmm....aren't you just trading long term "healthy" bone cells for a little short term benefit from the mass and density provided by the "dead" cells?"
March 25, 2010 - 1:44pmThis Comment
Hello! I'm one of the fortunate women who connected with Dr. Jennifer Schneider, the physician mentioned in the response from Phyllis who has also been such a blessing to me. I'm another Fosamax Fighter, currently recovering from a broken femur and having a rod put in my thigh. The support offered by Dr. Schneider and Phyllis and other women in the group has been my lifeline. I plan to join the class action suit and encourage others to do so. I am sick of hearing about side effects of flea and tick meds and now Zicam when there are many, many women who are suffering from the effects of Fosamax. I am also sick of being told I am a "rare event" when my research shows otherwise. There are MANY of us out there. My own research on the side effects of Fosamax has been astounding. I first suffered stress fractures of both femurs and then a year later, stumbled in my back yard and broke my femur. It was the most excruciating pain I've ever known....childbirth is nothing compared to that pain! Please join us in this fight.
June 18, 2009 - 5:20pmWe know we are not "rare events' and the word needs to get out to women. I have not been interested in litigation until my femur broke and now I feel I owe it to other women to get the word out.
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Thanks Cee--I will be googling him and the battle has begun! Vicki
June 11, 2009 - 7:57pmThis Comment
I do want to pursue action against the drug company. I am just not looking forward to all the years of trying to appease the attorney's needs. By the time it would settle, I'll probably be dead! But don't worry, I haven't given up and I'm still learning how it may have changed my life in other areas. I have had 7 spinal surgeries and I am wondering if this is why my spine is literally collapsing on itself. One disk bulge and rupture after that other. All that has led to lumbar and cervical fusions! I hope your story ends differently. I actually do not know where to find an attorney with the fortitude to fight the battle (war!). I guess I need to find out how to start! Thanks for your encouragement! Vicki
June 10, 2009 - 6:37pmThis Comment
Dear Vicki, No time is better than the present to begin to fight the battle. Regardless where either of us will be in 5 years, 10 years or next year. Let me put this bee in your bonnet, Tim O'Brien-google him. Cee
June 11, 2009 - 7:47pmThis Comment
I also have had bilateral femur fractures and have had rods inserted in both femurs, one in 2007 and the other in 2008. I had been on Fosamax for nine years. I have been off of it since January 2008. I think there are many of us out there who have suffered this trauma. Our stories are all similar; long term Fosamax use, unexplained thigh pain, nontraumatic femur fractures, rod placement and rehab. When I read an article in my local newspaper last July about the connection between femur fractures and Fosamax, I used google and found Dr. Jennifer Schneider, whose femur fractured in 2001 while she was on a New York subway. I e-mailed her and joined her list of women who have had this experience. It's a great supportive group and we have shared a lot of helpful information with each other. Jennifer has also written an excellent article about what has happened to all of us. To find it, google Bisphosphonates and low impact femur fractures: current evidence on alendronate fracture risk by Jennifer Schneider, M.D. She is a great support and a wealth of information. Her e-mail address is [email protected]. If you would like to be included in our group, e-mail Dr. Jennifer Schneider. We welcome anyone struggling with this issue to join us.
Four of us from the e-mail group have joined a mass tort law suit against Merck. The attorney who has taken our cases is Karen Menzies. The web site for the firm she is with is www.orangecountylaw.com. Karen's e-mail address is kbmenzies @rcrlaw.net and her phone number is 1-888-701-1288.
I think that the more of us who can connect the more we will learn about how to help ourselves. I hope many of you who have found your way to Empowerher will join our e-mail list.
Take good care,
June 11, 2009 - 4:59pmPhyllis
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