Help...Broken Bone Not Healing (on Arimidex and Prolia)

I can relate to your story. I was DX 3 1/2 years ago and already had osteopenia. One year later after being on Arimidex I had osteoporosis. Despite taking an additional drug for bone issues my numbers weren't getting better so my ONC switched me to Tamoxifen. My first bone density test already showed remarkable improvement. Arimidex attacks the bones so I probably should not have been on it to begin with. I exercise too but didn't seem to matter. Now it does. That is a long time to heal. Tamoxifen is no fun but def necessary for prevention. 

Diane 

Good suggestion Divine. When I saw my fancy bone endocrinologist, his intake form included a lengthy questionnaire of my food and drink, and there are definitely things we consume that are bad for our bones. A lot of caffeine is one. I think the phosphorous in soda is bad too. 

eb1965, have your docs run any blood tests, such as your vit D level? They should also make sure there are no other issues going on, like thyroid issues etc. (when I asked my endo to run blood tests for everything he even included a test that I think was related to gluten intolerance).  I'm not sure where you live, but sometimes the academic hospitals have endocrinologists who specialize in osteoporosis, so if you want a second opinion it might be worth it to have a consultation. I had one with the former head of an osteoporosis clinic. It was 1.5 hr drive each way but a one-time appointment (and he answered follow up questions via email).

Hi eb I thought I would add one more bit if information about bone healing that I heard from an associate doctor at the cast clinic when I broke my wrist (Colles fracture?) a year and a half ago. Because inflammation at the break is naturally required to make collegen to build bone it follows that using an anti inflammatory drug as a pain medication might be contra indicated.  

When I checked into this on google I found out the idea was speculative at best but still switched over to using acetaminophen just in case. The fracture was on the arm on my cancer side so I had  swelling due to Lymphedema  and so the break was quite painful. I can say the pain was in part due the LE cause  last Aug I broke the other wrist and though it was VERY discouraging to have this happen it was not nearly as bad. 

Brief bone history: finished chemo and rads and atarted on hormone therapy (Arimidex) 4 years ago. Had bone density test at same time showing osteoporosis in the spine and started on an older bisphosphate (Etidrondate) in order to be able to keep on hormone therapy. I couldn't take Fosomax etc. as I cannot swallow pills whole. Recast was suggested but my extended insurance cap had been reached for the year  (neupogen shots) so I would need to cover the whole cost and in any case the side effect list scared me.

Second dexxa two years ago showed a slight improvement in all areas but as the test was taken on a new machine and the change could be due to normal testing error bone density was considered 'stable'

After the wrist fracture I became eligible to take Prolia and had the first two injections in Jan and July 2013. I delayed the scheduled injection in Jan this year due to serous dental concerns. Turned out it was just a failed root canal and not jaw necrosis and with great care and followup I had the tooth extracted. A month ago I had a third Prolia injection.

A week and a half ago I had another bone density test and am waiting for the results. I stopped taking my anastrozole at the four year mark due both bone and other reasons but depending on the dexxa results might change my mind back again. (since stopping the pill I have been eating and sleeping like crazy and have started gaining a few pounds.  My weight up until now has been stable for the past four years)

Kathy

Hi Momine, I'm still waiting to get the DEXA result, should be any time though.

[edited to add:  It took over four weeks but I have the recent DEXA results now and have added the T -scores at the end below. The report stated the interval results from this last test are not significant ( ie. within the margin of error of measurement) so guess I have to take that into account when reading the 'low bone density' result instead of osteoporosis. Also my fracture risk in the next 10 years dropped from >20% to >10%. So much for statistics. ]

I should have mentioned in my last message that when I was diagnosed four years ago I was 66yo and more than 10 years post menopause so the findings were not all that unusual, also I involuntarily lost about 25 lbs during chemo (fec-d) and that certainly wouldn't have helped the bones any, so all in all the results were not really bad. Here are my earlier DEXA results

May 2010   T-score

Spine L 1-4    -2.9

Total hip   -1.8

Femoral neck   -2.2

June 2012  T-score (different machine)

Spine L 1-3    -2.7

Total hip   -1.5

Femoral neck   -1.9

New results:

June 2014.  T-score

Spine L1-4   -2.4

 Total femur. -1.4

Femoral neck  -1.8

Kathy