Monday, May 3, 2021

PROLIA: LIKE AN ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP

BEING ON PROLIA IS LIKE BEING IN AN ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP! 

My relationship with Prolia began pleasantly enough when a trusted physician specializing in endocrine disorders and osteoporosis suggested that my osteoporosis which seemed unresponsive to changes in diet, exercise and appropriate supplements could be helped by a drug injected twice yearly.  

The drug was Prolia.  

I followed instructions for years, receiving injections of this drug on time every six months as directed, while continuing with diet, exercise and supplements as directed.  

And all went well.  Until it didn't!

As noted elsewhere on these pages, this doctor retired, and the new doctor's office staff, apparently not comprehending the importance of Prolia's "six month + five days" schedule, would not schedule my Prolia shot on time.   

This mistake, which I would call a medical clerical error, resulted in multiple vertebral fractures within days after that shot was due, leaving me with disabling pain to this day. 

Here is why I believe a Prolia regimen resembles an abusive relationship:

1. At first the abuser acts kindly, and entices a partner with loving words and acts.  

                                                   

2. But the abuser has a hidden side, a side demanding complete obedience, and when wishes or even whims are not precisely met, or even for no reason at all, that abuser responds with crippling violence!   

                                            

Similarly,  Prolia was introduced with medical reassurances (later reinforced by ads on prime time TV) that this was a good drug to avoid the painful consequences of osteoporosis. 

What was not included in these enticements -- except for tiny warnings either buried in professional inserts and/or in language failing to give clear warning to lay people, and certainly not in the information that I was given when I went on this drug or subsequently until it was too late -- is that Prolia itself and/or its mismanagement can cause all sorts of serious problems.  

Problems intrinsic to the drug itself include (but are not limited to) issues I've experienced, including macular degeneration in both eyes* that could lead to blindness, serious dental issues, as well as irritating skin problems.  

And, as noted above, this brief delay of a few days in receiving injections was quickly followed by painful and disabling multiple fractures.   

I now live with all of these distressing conditions, the most frightening being the prospect of blindness, which some doctors say is because I am on Prolia (but others say it is associated with the osteoporosis itself.  

Yet (as with the abuser who threatens even more harm should his victim try to leave the relationship) there appears to be no SAFE way off this drug!  

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*As I learned in 2022 from another retinal specialist, the eye condition is more likely related to osteoporosis itself, rather than to Prolia (as an earlier retinal specialist carelessly told me).