Tuesday, March 10, 2015

     Today was a dense day.  Or rather, should I say low density day?  That's because I had my bone density scan today and it was interesting.  First, I checked in now where you have to check in for Radiology, Lab, and Urgent Care.  Out of the 4 stations they had, only 2 people were working with patients.  And you can only see if they have someone there to help by little mirrors that are up on the walls facing towards the entrance.  So I had to wait a while but eventually got up to check in.  Good thing I got there early.  So I finally got back to see the technician that does the bone density scans.
     I went back and there was a table with a big padded area that you lay down on and this machine runs parallel over the bed.  I had to take everything out of my pockets, take off my belt and lay down on the table.  Then the technician took a triangular wedge and put it in between my ankles and had my go pigeon-toed, then she velcro-ed my in place.  I was told to relax and hold still while she made the machine go back and forth over my hips.
     Next, I had to unzip my pants and open it while she put a sheet over me, then the machine went over and took pictures of my lumbar spine.
      When the technician was done, she printed out the pictures of my hip joints, my lumbar spine and the measurements of how thick or dense, those were.  They base the measurements on a healthy 30 year old set of bones and they start a reading of zero.  Then they give you a measurement in the negative showing loss.  The more negative the number, the greater the loss.  Well, one of my hips is still barely in the normal range but my lumbar spine and the other hip are at a loss that puts me in the category of  osteopenia, the precursor of osteoporosis.  What exactly I have to do to correct this, I don't know but I do know that if I don't take measures now, I will go into full blown osteoporosis and have brittle bones.  I have an appointment on the 17th to meet with a physician's assistant of the orthopedic department.
     I had therapy with Steve later in the day then swapped the car with hubby.  Hubby ended up working until 10pm so I ate leftovers earlier and waited for him to come home.  We relaxed and watched some tv before going to bed.