[boydisappearing]

I am not the usual demographic for an osteoporosis case. I'm a 31 year old man. But I've had anorexia for more than 10 years, and I'm currently in day treatment. As part of treatment, they did a bone density scan. Today they told me I have osteoporosis. I've told myself not to google it until my doctor at least talks to me about it next week. I have been told I'll need to avoid certain physical activities and that I'll be referred to an osteoporosis clinic that will treat me, and that it's irreversible and lifelong. But that's all I know. In order to stay off google I told myself I'd at least post it here.

I'm still kind of shocked. I mean, I'm 31. That's so young for something so... I don't know. I guess it's my own fault.

[Perna]

Oh, boydisappearing, I'm sorry you are having this complication of your anorexia. It is not a "fault", just the domino effect. I had a major infection and the antibiotics needed wrecked parts of my immune system so now I have adult-onset asthma (don't really have allergies or asthma "attacks", I just need my inhaler usually every 4-6 hours, more often at night). My grandmother had COPD from smoking so her lungs obviously weren't the greatest so I probably inherited those.

My husband is currently dealing with cancer, he has a condition for which his father was operated on (which probably gave him the cancer) and his mother died of cancer so he got a little bit of genetic hot spots from both people. I am a genealogist and have looked at my ancestors back in all directions for 200+ years and don't have any cancer anywhere so I have turned off thinking about it and worrying I might get it, etc., it's very probably not in my cards.

With this current thing with my husband's cancer, I no longer believe Googling is terribly useful other than to find out base medical stuff; it has nothing to do with what will happen to us as individuals? The reality of how an illness will play out still has to do with our own individual genes, habits, experiences/lives. I'm so glad you are waiting until your doctor talks to you (I did not do that with my husband's illness :-) and taking clues from what he has to say and explain about how it affects you. I decided since my husband's doctors were positive and not panicking that I would not either :-) It is so much more comfortable and easier to pay attention to what is happening now and problems I have now and how to solve them instead of trying to worry about and solve problems I might never have six months from now, etc.

I'm really sorry that you've developed this as a result of anorexia. *hug* I want to tell you not to blame yourself. I don't think you chose to be anorexic, did you? There's a difference between something happening to us as a result of our actions and our being "to blame" for it. I can understand that you will probably have feelings of "I did this to myself" but please remember that you didn't do it on purpose.

There are different degrees of osteoporosis and also treatments to keep it from getting worse. I imagine those are things you will find out when you go to the osteoporosis clinic for a consultation. Since you don't know at the moment how severe your osteoporosis is, if you did an internet search, it would be hard to gain much definitive information.

Does doing an internet search about illness cause you anxiety? You could do a search to learn "if my osteoporosis is mild, then this - if moderate, then this - if severe, then this" but if you tend to lean towards assuming that yours is severe, then that might not be a good idea.

I tend to assume any physical condition I have is mild or not important until a doctor tells me otherwise. I think I get that from my dad - it's called "denial", I think, although I prefer to call it "anti-catastrophizing."

Waiting for information about a medical condition and to learn what your treatment plan will be is always tough. My best advice would be to try to distract yourself until you get more information and find out what you need to do for the condition.

I've been dealing with high blood pressure lately that won't respond to medication. I didn't take it seriously until I started testing it regularly at home and then I got very anxious. I am on my last "medication trial" at the moment. If this doesn't work, I have to get a ton of blood work to see if my kidneys and who knows what else are functioning properly. I have been struggling with worrying about having a stroke, since those run in my family.

I'm just adding that personal information to say that it's hard to wait to find out the details about a health problem.

I'm older, but I was around your age when I was diagnosed with an autoimmune illness and I remember my outrage and indignation. I felt like "But! But! This can't be - I'm too young!" It really sucks to get a diagnosis at your age.

[Iguanadon]

Originally Posted by boydisappearing

I am not the usual demographic for an osteoporosis case. I'm a 31 year old man. But I've had anorexia for more than 10 years, and I'm currently in day treatment. As part of treatment, they did a bone density scan. Today they told me I have osteoporosis. I've told myself not to google it until my doctor at least talks to me about it next week. I have been told I'll need to avoid certain physical activities and that I'll be referred to an osteoporosis clinic that will treat me, and that it's irreversible and lifelong. But that's all I know. In order to stay off google I told myself I'd at least post it here.

I'm still kind of shocked. I mean, I'm 31. That's so young for something so... I don't know. I guess it's my own fault.

It's hard not to feel guilty about it, I have AN (I'm also about the same age as you) and am now dealing with a lot of the complications from the disease. I do feel guilty and like people should have no sympathy for me because, on the outside, it looks like 'I did this to myself'. There were times during my illness where I really, truly wanted to be sick (one of those deals where I wanted the pain I was feeling inside to match the outside) and I neglected many basic necessities to deprive myself.

I've recently been dealing with dental complications, I went to a dentist for the first time in 3-ish years and had 13 cavities, one of which needed a root canal! I left the dentist office crying on more than a few occasions because I always felt like it was my fault and I brought all this stupidness upon myself.

But like someone else mentioned, I didn't chose to have this illness ( . . . but I can choose to recover?? I'm not sure if I 100% buy this, as I've struggled for over 15 years and just want it out of my life) so don't blame yourself. Easier said than done, right?

[pinkflower17]

Originally Posted by boydisappearing

I am not the usual demographic for an osteoporosis case. I'm a 31 year old man. But I've had anorexia for more than 10 years, and I'm currently in day treatment. As part of treatment, they did a bone density scan. Today they told me I have osteoporosis. I've told myself not to google it until my doctor at least talks to me about it next week. I have been told I'll need to avoid certain physical activities and that I'll be referred to an osteoporosis clinic that will treat me, and that it's irreversible and lifelong. But that's all I know. In order to stay off google I told myself I'd at least post it here.

I'm still kind of shocked. I mean, I'm 31. That's so young for something so... I don't know. I guess it's my own fault.

I'm a little younger than you and I have osteoporosis from anorexia. You can't completley "cure" it, but you can do a lot. You can stop the bone loss, you can rebuild some bone mass w meds, calcium, weight bearing exercise etc, you can take protective measures against fractures. You can do a lot. Dont let yourself be helpless. I run marathons and have run several since being diagnosed. You just have to be a little more cautious. You can get through this.