Next month on the 18th of November, I will quietly and silently mark the twenty-first anniversary of the day when the whole picture I had in my head of my own body turned completely upside down!
Short of four months before, my body considerably altered while carrying our first child. Birth and delivery of a baby boy brought a second transformation. I was deeply engrossed in the task of learning now to be a mom and fielding unexpected competition from my live-in, not merely visiting old-fashioned Japanese mother-in-law.
"OSTEOPOROSIS, or porous bone, is a disease characterized by low bone mass and structural deterioration of bone tissue, leading to bone fragility and an increased susceptibility to fractures, especially of the hip, spine and wrist, although any bone can be affected."
- National Osteoporosis Foundation website
Despite prior preparations, I was busy enough as most parents of new babies can tell you, you can never plan for everything. The handful of new baby and new parent handbooks I'd waded through during my pregnancy were reassuring. I never felt completely without some foundation.
When my own health - uneventfully stable for years - began to crumble as early as a month and a half after my son was born. As it turned out there was really nothing in any bookstore that could have adequately prepared me for what was to come next.
Mizu Sugimura, 31, during the mid 80's, models a sweatshirt of her own design worn only on medical visits. The shirt was created to provide a bit of mental cheer that was not otherwise present at the time. (Photo by Yaz Yambe, copyright 1987.)
It began at the onset with a mild but unexplained tender spot in my lower back. Days went by and the tender spot felt more like a knot in my back which made little sense to myself or the family practitioner serving as both my own and the new babies doctor. My physician speculated that pain in this area might indicate weak stomach muscles. Exercises were prescribed.
The “knot” for lack of better description which registered by touch as a small bump on my spine, began to radiate further and increasingly stronger sensations of pain, which began to multiply daily. I hurt all day and then all night. Meanwhile I began having difficulty holding heavy objects. Most alarmingly that my definition of “heavy” changed weekly. The exercises were of no help. And I felt as the first months of my baby's life went by, I was literally watching myself fall apart.
This last symptom drove me to my doctor to insist I be allowed to have an x-ray. According to the interpretation generated by the consulting radiologist the x-ray I took showed ” radiographic suggestion of osteoporosis by plain film technique with concave deformity of L-3 which may be analogous to a compression fracture….”
The radiologist's report started a long chair reaction of appointments to local medical professionals up the chain leading specialist at the University of Washington School of Medicine and my soaring ascent to the ranks of a relative handful of new moms in the entire area, region, and the United States of America who have been beneficiaries of news such as this.
"TEN MILLION Americans presently suffer from osteoporosis today, according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation. Of this number, 8 million are women and 2 million are men. It is estimated that fifty-five percent of people over the age of fifty are at risk to develop the condition which although associated with older adults can strike at any age."
- National Osteoporosis Foundation website
My upward climb finally ended in May 1987 with a tentative diagnosis of significant osteopenia, a confirmation of three compression fractures of the lower spine and residual activity which all took place at my ripe old age of 31 years less than four months after presenting my husband with our first child.
(to be continued)
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