I can't get going today

I hate days like this. It all started yesterday when I decided to lay down and take a nap because my back was hurting. I napped for about 5 hours and then didn't sleep any last night. Today I'm just all blah!

The results from the MRI I has last week are not good news. I have osteoporosis in my lumbar spine and cervical spine. As a result I also have bone spurs all over my spine. These can be very painful because they often press on nerves. They also cause the spinal opening to become more narrow and that leads to a whole new set of problems.

Today I start a round of steroids to reduce the inflammation in my lumbar spine and I start doing specific exercises to increase range of motion in all of my joints affected by this miserable fucking disease. I am in disagreement with the steroid treatment. Steroids are treating a symptom of the problem instead of the root problem, which is osteoporosis. If they know that I have osteoporosis then why not start me on a treatment like Boniva or Fosamax to prevent further bone loss? I hate steroids because they make me want to be violent. I have enough trouble holding myself in check on a daily basis doing the work that I do...I don't need anything that will feed my need to smash and destroy. That could be dangerous.

However, I will do what the doctor says. I know steroids will reduce my pain and that is really all I care about right now. The 500 mg of Naproxen and 10 mg of Robaxin ain't cutting it and the opiate based pain killers they gave me last week are gone. Instead of taking three a day I required one every four hours. During the first two days I required more than that as I would wake up at night in pain and take one so I could get some sleep. Besides, there were far fewer painkillers than NSAID's or muscle relaxers. The problem with all of those medicines is they hurt my stomach.

It really sucks to have inherited this particular disease. Mine kicked in when I was 28 and has gotten progressively worse with each passing year. I watched my grandmother suffer for years and years with osteoporosis and she died bed-ridden and in terrible pain. When I was a little kid I used to get so tired of her talking about her aching joints...but now I understand just how badly she must have hurt and realize what is in store for me in the not too distant future. Calcium supplements, cabinets full of pain killers and a lot of suffering.

Do any of my readers suffer from this condition? What kinds of treatments have worked best for you? What hasn't worked at all?