The broken toe

So, a few weeks ago I broke a toe. To me, it seemed to be a traumatic injury...after all, I stub my toes all the time and they never break. Well, this time, I hit it just right on a metal dive board at the YMCA pool, and it hurt. Really really hurt. When I got home, it was moving in a way a toe shouldn't really move, so I iced it and decided to go to the doctor. It turned out that I broke my 4th metatarsal...basically my toe next to my pinky toe but in the foot, not the toe part itself. Well, they gave me a boot and crutches and made me an appointment with an orthopedic doctor. He told me I could tape it and that it was a clean and should heal well...but he said it was a non-traumatic injury and I should get a bone density scan. Fast forward a few weeks and I got a scan and went in Friday for my results. Ominous, no? I thought so. Usually my awful primary care doctor just sends a letter with results, even if they aren't great. Anyway, it turns out that I have osteopenia! My spine bone density results were normal but my femoral (the hip) measurements weren't great. I have mild to moderate osteopenia at 36! Ugh. Of course, I have some risk factors, I do take inhaled steroids, have thyroid disease, undiagnosed celiac disease for years and have taken course after course of lupron and rarely, oral steroids. So, there you have it. It was somewhat shocking since I am very active. I run, swim, do yoga 3 - 5X a week, etc. I don't have small bones and am not underweight. I am still a little shocked.

I am still going ahead with the transfer. For now, my doctor wants me to start calcium and vitamin D. She is sending me to a digestive doc to discuss the gluten issues and a nutritionist to make sure I am eating well (I am a pretty healthy eater, but what do I know?). I also don't know if my bones are always like this or if this is actual bone LOSS, as they suggest, since it is my only test, we don't know if I've had better bones or not. Its kind of a weird test and a weird result. Nonetheless, here I am. Part of the reason I am writing this is so that any of the rest of you who have done multiple IVFs and any of you that do depot lupron, and/or have thyroid issues (there are lots of you!) start calcium and vitamin D asap. They didn't tell me to do this and I wish they had. In some way, its probably a good thing that I broke a toe...at least now I can try to prevent my bones from getting worse...though I'm still dumbfounded.