Bonfire of the Goddesses
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voraciousreader - Perhaps I can get some of the other ladies to help us.
Thanks for sharing some of this book. It gives me a good excuse to head to the book store and look for it. It does sound intetesting and worth reading.
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Don't worry about the fire going out completely ladies...remember I threw MY sister in weeks ago. Her ass will burn forever.
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barbe....you got me rolling on the floor....Nice way to start the day!
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Barbe - We can always count on you for a good laugh
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thanks voraciousreader, I am tossing the bone density scanner on the bonfire.
oh, and also the crosscountry skiier who as she passed us in the opposite direction and after providing unwanted ski instruction announced that she was celebrating her cancerversary. I asked what kind of cancer (watch what you ask for) she said colon cancer and then added, thank heavens it wasn't breast cancer, that would have been much worse. So I responded well I have breast cancer and so does another person in my party further up the hill. Before she could respond to that, I said may we all have good outcomes and continued up the hill. I can understand people comfort themselves with "it could be worse" scenarios, but they should think before they blather on about them!!
Julie E
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Jelson - Good move. What was she thinking? We don't get to pick what kind of cancer we have. It is always the hope that no one has to go through any kind of cancer treatment. May she burn for a very long time.
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I can lend a hand moving something heavy. Here with a few dozen empty pill bottles to toss in the fire. I wanted to recycle them, but it's taking way too much time to remove the super-adhesive label emblazoned with my personal info. Won't fan the flames much but I'm spring cleaning and they gotta go!
hey let me know if the flames get too hot somewhere. There's a lot of ugly dirty end-of-winter snow in sloooowly-melting piles here, and I'd love to get rid of it.
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badger - Maybe you can put the snow piles close to the fire in case someone gets too close.
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will do jo, here 'tis, to avoid flooding & mud, I'll leave it a little bit away from the firepit.
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Jo...would you mind if I post a sign that asks people when they are bringing their piles down to the fire...not to step on the garden that I planted? I wouldn't want one of those bone density machines or a pile of snow or a wheelbarrel to crush my flowers. My crocuses will be blooming any day now.....
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I would like to throw in those little devilish steroid pills and the plastic bottle they came in that I had to take before chemo. They made me feel awful. I hated taking them. After I throw them in I want to put in a bit of lighter fluid so they flame up, OK?
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voraciousreader - Maybe we could put a fence around the garden. You know how excited we can get out throwing our stuff in and I don't want anyone to accidently step on the flowers. Let me look and see if I have some paint to make it look pretty. LOL I can help water the plants if you need me to.
Omaz - The bigger the bonfire the better so go right ahead.
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Badger, thanks for offering up the goddess the pill bottles - which would recyclable where I live - EXCEPT I can't get the labels off!!! for some reason I feel the landfill provides greater anonymity for medical information than the plastic recycler? Oh and what can I repurpose them as? the tops which are so hard to get off aren't really waterproof.
JulieE
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LOL Julie, that's why I have several dozen empties. I don't even want to think of the drawerful I'll have after five years of tamox! Maybe a good soak in hot water would loosen those dang labels, have you tried that?
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I use the pill containers for protecting small breakables when I send them in padded envelopes.. It would take an 18 wheeler running over them to break them! (i'm in a fragrance sample swap group)
edit to add: ya know, egg cartons can be used to start seeds -- what about the pill continers?
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Oh, I never thought of that for egg cartons - good idea!
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Omaz..Put it in the freezer for an hour.
Let us know if it worked.
When DD's were younger they always forgot gum in their pockets. Once it melted on my bras so I put the bras in the freezer and it worked.
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The New York Times today, March 6, 2011, published this article online. Now what do you know?!
Revisiting Bone Drugs and Femur Fractures
Nearly six years ago in this column, I discussed what was then a little-known problem associated with long-term use of bisphosphonates, the valuable drugs that protect against fractures caused by bone loss. The drugs, among them Fosamax, Actonel and Boniva, can slow bone loss, increase bone density and cut fracture rates in half in women with established osteoporosis.
Reports had begun to emerge that some women taking bisphosphonates for many years suffered an unusual fracture of the femur, the long bone of the thigh. There was little or no trauma; in most cases the women were simply standing or walking when the femur snapped in half. In some, breaks occurred in both thighs, and many of the fractures were unusually slow to heal.
Experts think the fractures happened because of the way the drugs work: by slowing the rate of bone remodeling, the normal process by which injured bone heals. As a result, microfractures that occur through normal wear and tear are not repaired. Although bone density may be normal, the bone can become brittle and crack under minor stress.
In the years since, hundreds of cases of atypical femur fractures have been reported among women and some men taking bisphosphonates for five or more years. A number of studies have tried to assess the risk, and last fall the Food and Drug Administration issued a "safety announcement" and required that the drugs' labels warn physicians and patients to be alert for this potential complication.
Weighing the Research
But many questions remain, including who is most at risk for femur fractures and whether the risks outweigh the important benefits of taking a bisphosphonate for many years. The latest assessment was published Feb. 23 in The Journal of the American Medical Association by a team of physicians and epidemiologists in Toronto.
The team, led by Laura Y. Park-Wyllie, an epidemiologist who is a doctor of pharmacology at St. Michael's Hospital, gathered treatment and fracture data among all 205,466 women in Ontario aged 68 or older who had been treated with a bisphosphonate. They identified those who had suffered femur fractures occurring below the hip and above the knee - called subtrochanteric or femoral shaft fractures - and compared each case with those of up to five other women the same age who had been free of this injury.
Those who had taken the drugs for five years or longer were more than twice as likely to have had such a fracture as those who took them only briefly. But because X-rays of the bone were not reviewed, it is not certain that the fractures were linked to the drugs. At the same time, long-term use of bisphosphonates prevented many more fractures than it might have caused; the risk of osteoporotic femur fractures, a far more common injury, was reduced by 25 percent, Dr. Park-Wyllie said in an interview.
"Compared to the number of fractures prevented," she said, "the actual risk of a subtrochanteric femur fracture is small" - 1 case in 1,000 in the sixth year of therapy and 2.2 cases in 1,000 the seventh year.
A report published last year in The New England Journal of Medicine found no increase in atypical femur fractures, but that study did not include enough patients taking bisphosphonates for many years to produce a reliable result. Preliminary data from a much larger study has indicated that the risk of atypical femur fractures increased from 2 cases a year per 100,000 users after two years of bisphosphonate therapy to 78 cases a year per 100,000 after eight years on the drug.
In a report from a 27-member task force of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (published online in September in The Journal of Bone and Mineral Research), the experts noted that the way bisphosphonates work can reduce the "toughness" of bones. "It is highly likely that case reports and case series of atypical femur fractures will continue to accumulate," the task force wrote, noting that another 47 cases had been reported since their analysis was prepared. Many cases are not reported, and in an unknown number of cases physicians may not recognize the fractures as atypical.
The task force called for an international registry of cases, including details that could help define who is most at risk.
First, an Evaluation
What should patients and doctors do?
"Relative to the millions of fractures that occur every year in the United States, the number of atypical femur fractures should not discourage the use of these effective drugs by patients with osteoporosis who are at high risk of fracture," a leader of the task force, Dr. Elizabeth Shane, said in an interview. (Dr. Shane is a bone specialist at Columbia University Medical Center.)
Initial excitement about bone-protecting drugs led to prescriptions for millions of women who were not necessarily at high fracture risk, and many experts now urge a thorough evaluation before a bisphosphonate is prescribed. In addition to bone density test results, the evaluation should take into account a patient's smoking and drinking habits, thinness, family history of osteoporosis, previous osteoporotic fractures, drug prescriptions and weight-bearing exercise regimen. An online evaluation tool developed by the World Health Organization is at www.shef.ac.uk/FRAX, though some experts have criticized it as incomplete.
The task force said a decision to treat should be "based on an assessment of benefits and risks," and added, "patients who are deemed to be at low risk of osteoporotic-related fractures should not be started on bisphosphonates."
Even those with osteoporosis in the spine but little or no problem in their hips, the experts concluded, should consider alternative remedies.
While no one knows what the optimal length of drug treatment should be, five years on a bisphosphonate seems to confer an adequate benefit; after that, patients should consider taking a "drug holiday."
Before resuming therapy, the patient's risk factors for fracture should be reassessed. The task force noted that half of currently known patients with atypical fractures had been on bisphosphonates for seven years.
Furthermore, in 70 percent of cases, patients reported experiencing pain or discomfort in the thigh or groin for weeks or months before the femur fractured. Anyone on a bone drug who develops such a pain should be carefully evaluated, first with an X-ray and, if nothing is seen but the cause is uncertain, by a bone scan or M.R.I.
When a problem like a defect in the shell of the femur is found and the patient has pain, a fracture is highly likely, Dr. Shane said, and the task force recommended inserting a rod in the bone to keep it from breaking.
Furthermore, Dr. Jennifer Schneider of Tucson, an internist who after seven years on Fosamax suffered a nontraumatic femur fracture that took two years to heal, notes that the damage is often bilateral - so when a problem is found in one leg, the other leg should be thoroughly examined. Among patients in an online support and information group she established, some reported suffering a second atypical fracture in the other thigh.
Dr. Schneider invites patients who have had such a fracture to write her at jennifer@jenniferschneider.com.
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Barbe & Jo,
Just checking out the sisters. They are definately still burning!!!
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vivvygirl - Good for them - they deserve it.
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voraciousreader: I'll help with that machine!! Uuuuuuuuuuuugggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh! DONE!! It will burn for quite a while......
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throw some lighter fluid on it - yeahhhh!!
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Just move my sister's ass over closer....you don't need to waste lighter fluid!
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LOL((Barbe))
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I want to throw in those who say 'so you're all done?' For some reason that question just really really bugs me. No, I'm not done! I still have to do this and this and this and I won't be done for 5 years.
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Another reaction <<OOH it's nothing everybody's getting it now>>
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Omaz - I have heard that one what seems like a million times. I tell them the same thing - NO, I am not done. I have to take a pill for 5 years and see an oncologist for the rest of my life - I will never be done with this. I'll throw all those people in along with the ones you tossed.
Barbe
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Ahhh...sisters.....I just came back from a trip to my husband's physician...and boy oh boy...can I count on you sisters for a good laugh!
You folks are Da best!I'm telling you, between my husband's and my doctors, I never know if I'm coming or going! I'm just grateful that I'm vertical and CAN keep MOVING! Did I mention that my oldest son had some surgery also last week and I have to take him for a recheck with HIS doctor in the morning?
Anyway, I've got one more person to throw in the fire. A former butt head friend of mine that I stopped speaking to two years ago once said to me that she thought I had, "Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome." Well you know what? I can't help it that my husband has a rare metabolic muscular dystrophy, my oldest son has bad ears that's required numerous surgeries, so he could hear, and I got a G-d damn rare breast cancer of my own to deal with.
I haven't spoken to her for two years and I stopped speaking to her BEFORE I got the cancer. Am I supposed to go back to her noe and say, "A-hole, am I making THIS up?" Really.
Some folks have NO clue how lucky they are with their health. All those folks that take for granted their health AND MAKE FUN OF OUR HEALTH...they're going IN that fire!
Just watch the flowers in the garden, please.
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Oh, and I forgot to mention, my husband has a few cardiac stents too. Munchausen's? Really.
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