We had a few frantic days here at my house. My husband was in a lot of pain and taken to the local hospital. They couldn't seem to help him. They got him stabilized and had the ambulance take him to a bigger hospital in the city.
He was there overnight. They found 4 compression fractures in his spine. Now they don't know how old they are but my husband thinks they could be the result of a 10 foot fall he took at work some weeks back.

I told my Mom about it and she mentioned a slight curve to his upper back. She asked if he had osteoporosis. Wha??? Is it common for men to get osteoporosis?

yes, not AS common as in women but fairly common

http://www.niams.nih.gov/Health_Info...orosis/men.asp

well, he's home for the rest of the week. MRI is scheduled for Sunday (love those large hospitals!!)
He's on Vicodin, Valium, and Dilaudid. He is not conscious

My doctor is watching my calcium and magnesium levels the way she would for a woman. She says there's been a tremendous increase in osteoporosis in men in recent years. But I assume your husband is young enough to be my son, if not younger, so it is unusual in a man so young.

I assume they'll blame this on the dropoff in weight-bearing exercise.

Don't they have medical marijuana where you live???

Is that effective for anything other than the treatment of pain?

~String

The most consistently positive reports I have heard are relief from the nausea characteristic of chemotherapy, permitting cancer patients to regain their appetites and get their weight back up, which is a dire issue in their recovery. Duh, its most famous side effect is "the munchies."

It's also a muscle relaxant, and it can relieve anxiety temporarily if it's just general malaise. But if it's worry over a specific issue it might elevate it to paranoia, the other common side effect, which keeps stoned drivers in the slow lane.

It has some notoriety as a blocker of the withdrawal symptoms of caffeine and alcohol, and anecdotally even stronger drugs, giving the addict who truly wants to break the cycle a window for doing so. Oddly, I've never heard of anyone trying it for nicotine, the most stubborn and hopeless withdrawal of all.

I have no idea. pffft, not like he'd care.

well the MRI results are in and he has Scheuermann's kyphosis due to a few wedge shaped vertebrae because of damage done in a car accident over 20 years ago. Since the damage is so old, they can't fix it. All they can do now is pain management with shots, meds and psychical therapy. All of these are in his thoracic region.
He also has Schmorl's nodes in his lumbar region.

And on the 17th he is having knee surgery. It gets better and better for him.

That's an odd way to put it. Kyphosis is curvature of the spine in the upper back causing slouched posture and breathing problems. But it's only called Scheuermann's kyphosis if it was caused by Scheuermann's disease, which is a childhood disease. If the kyphosis has another cause such as osteoporosis, trauma, arthritis or compression fractures, then it's not Scheuermann's kyphosis.I'm no doctor but I am from California and he sounds like a perfect candidate for medical marijuana. It doesn't always work but it's worth a try and if it doesn't work no harm is done. Super-duper prescription painkillers make you just as stoned as grass, and often stupider. And since they haven't been tested for thousands of years we don't yet know all the side effects.Kyphosis is in the thoracic region by definition. Still no good reason to call it Scheuermann's.What kind? Meniscus? Seems like everybody's getting it these days.

Scheuermann’s kyphosis

This condition (also called Scheuermann’s disease) occurs when the front of the upper spine does not grow as fast as the back of the spine, so that the vertebrae become wedge-shaped, with the narrow part of the wedge in front. The wedge-shape of the vertebra creates an increase in the amount of normal kyphosis (front angulation of the thoracic spine)

He had damage to his spine in the same car accident that is resulting in the knee surgery. A few of his vertebre became wedged shaped in the accident and since he was young and still growing....anyways, its what they are calling it.

He is having an osteotomy done right below his knee.

uck, I thought they would put bone cement in the gap, but they put in something like ground up cadaver bone paste.