My Broken Bones Were A Warning Sign
By Julia A. Keirns
I was only 45 years old when I had a complete hysterectomy. I had large fibroid tumors and thankfully they were benign. I had no major symptoms of menopause other than some frantic hot flashes, but other than that there were no other problems. I was glad to be done with periods and pap smears.
Fast forward 7 years to the age of 52 and I slipped on the ice one day while wearing good quality snow boots and completely snapped my left ankle sideways. The EMT’s were shocked that I broke it as bad as I did with such good boots on. A trip to the Emergency Room led to admission in the hospital. I had broken the fibula, the medial malleolus, and the tibia which split up the leg. Surgery the next day fixed it with a metal plate and 14 screws. I spent the next six months healing and learning to walk again.
Fast forward 2 more years to the age of 54. I was taking a shower one day when my right foot slipped, and my right knee completely snapped sideways. I fell down in the tub and could not move my right knee. The ACL completely broke, which was the loud snap I heard. This resulted in severe pain and instant swelling of the entire knee. An Emergency Room visit led to an appointment with a specialist. The MRI showed that I had also torn the MCL, the medial meniscus and the lateral meniscus. My knee was toast.
The ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) is one of the key ligaments that stabilizes the knee (ACL, 2019). Without it my knee would always give out and snap sideways. Let alone the fact that all the other major components of the knee were ripped and torn. I had lost all of the strength in the right knee and leg. I was left with no other choice than to have the surgeon fix it. Surgery fixed it with a bone graft and a screw or two somewhere deep in the knee, along with trimming off all the torn pieces of everything else. Because of this ACL reconstruction surgery though, I ended up with no feeling in most of the lower right leg from my knee down to my ankle. There is a nerve that gets cut during the surgery and the feeling will never come back. Just imagine shaving your leg and not being able to feel the razor on the skin. It is definitely a weird sensation to get used to. This knee was not healing as quick as it should, and I was struggling. Mind you, I was a 54 year old female, somewhat overweight, and not physically fit who had just severely broken her left ankle only two years before. The most difficult thing was strengthening the hamstring, as part of the hamstring was harvested to create the new ligament for the ACL.
Time went on and I turned 55. I simply got up one day and was walking to the kitchen. We have a 3-inch step up to the dining room, as the living room is sunken. I put my foot up onto the landing wrong and my right foot slipped off the step. Would you believe my right big toe completely snapped sideways and broke and split all the bones in my toe. There was also a minor hairline fracture in the bone up in the foot above the great toe joint. This required an Emergency Room visit during the beginning stages of COVID-19. This led to another visit with the specialist. I am becoming one of his favorite returning patients. Yes, I had to have surgery a third time and there is now a metal plate and 4 screws in my right great toe. It still will not bend, and I still have a lot of pain. It has only been 5 months since that accident, and if I have learned anything, it is that it takes a good year or two for breaks to really heal.
So, what is the point of telling you all about my clumsy fractures? Well, after so many drastic breaks I began to wonder if my bones were brittle. I talked to my doctor about my concerns and he agreed that I needed to have a DEXA-scan to find out the density of my bones. This required me to lay on a table while a laser scanned my hips and spine. Sometimes they will also scan the wrist, but they did not scan mine. Blood work was also done. Sure enough, the results of the scan proved that I am osteopenic at the age of only 56.
Osteopenia is the precursor to Osteoporosis. You begin to lose bone mass and your bones get weaker (Staff, 2018). The inside of your bones become brittle from a loss of calcium (Staff, 2018). When we are young, our bodies create new bone faster than our bodies break down old bone. After menopause, the opposite is true, and we can no longer create new bone fast enough to keep up. This is why my bones were getting brittle already. The bloodwork I had done also showed a severe Vitamin-D deficiency. This also causes bone loss. Vitamin D is essential for strong bones (Vitamin, 2020). Sunlight is the main source of Vitamin D. I had definitely been out of the sun for the last three years healing from broken bones and injuries. When I asked the doctor what would cause such a severe deficiency, he said, “lack of sunlight.” I have reddish-blonde hair and fair skin. I have always been somewhat careful of the sun because I burn so easily. But I also had not been outside much in the last three years.
We just do not know how something will affect us until it is too late. So now I am on large amounts of Vitamin D and Calcium Supplements to build myself back up. I will always have weak bones now and I am at high risk for osteoporosis. I have seemed to develop a small fear of falling in the last few years but am not going to let it stop me from living. Before my first broken bone, my husband and I were avid weekend hikers. We have concluded after all three breaks that maybe hiking is not in the cards for us just yet, but we went and bought a bunch of camping equipment. I love being outside in nature and am bound and determined to get back out there and let that sun shine on my skin.
References
ACL injury. (2019, March 30). Mayo Clinic. Retrieved August 13, 2020, from https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/acl-injury/symptoms-causes/syc-20350738
Staff. (2018, November 14). Family Doctor. What Is Osteopenia? — Osteoporosis. Retrieved August 13, 2020, from https://familydoctor.org/condition/osteopenia/
Vitamin D Deficiency: 6 Causes, Common Symptoms & Health Risks. (2020, July 28). WebMD. Retrieved August 13, 2020, from https://www.webmd.com/diet/guide/vitamin-d-deficiency