I’ve gotten some practical guidance from Dr. Maunak Rana at the University of Chicago Pain Clinic. I've mentioned him before in this blog, and he's given me good counsel. I see him at the U of C branch at Roosevelt and Canal. It's hard for me to get there and back but worth it.
Dr. Rana is the only doc who, to my knowledge, carefully reviewed my MRI, and also the only one who took some more X-rays, and poked me up and down my spine and ribs, one by one, etc. to see if I would actually be a good candidate for corrective surgery.
Although he does at least three kinds of "vertebral augmentation" surgery, he determined that these would not help me because my pain was not located directly in the spine. This was actually a huge relief because I don't like many of the things I have been reading about these surgeries.
He is familiar with the things I'm doing with my physical therapists and alternative practitioners to build my core and help with inflammation and pain generally, especially what I experience as painful internal bruising (for lack of a better description) etc.
I first saw him as soon as I was able to get to his clinic, and now, about a year later, about every 2 months, having been for all practical purposes pretty much abandoned by Amgen -- the manufacturer of Prolia -- as well as by the other U. of C. docs who haven't much to offer for the damage I've sustained.
Like the other docs, he offers no prognosis, nor can anyone else it seems. I only hope that I can get a little better a bit at a time so that I can live out my life with less pain and more ability to do the simple things I enjoy that involve sitting, standing or walking.