Oh wow! That’s a mess. So you’ve had some recovery, but you’ve got quite a lot going on. Are you able to do physical therapy to help out with your back and neck (and shoulder?)?
I am getting PT twice weekly. Concerned about foot sure though. Now that I can drive again and shop alone I’m getting out and seeing friends which helps so much.
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My update is not particularly good. I was very excited to get the first 6 week follow up x-rays for my big toe. It turns out that the urgent care doctor did not take an x-ray of my entire foot so there’s some questions left. But there is an additional fracture that is new to me on my right foot, one of the metatarsals. I have no idea when it happened so I don’t know if it happened when I broke the big toe or at some other point in time. I stumbled at least once in the last 6 weeks and hit my foot hard enough to go out so I really don’t know.
So I’m now up to three fractures. The right foot has the big toe that I believe is healing, and a metatarsal fracture. The left foot I will go in at 6 weeks and see the doctor before I get X-rays done.
I also need to make a phone call to my GP, because somebody needs to figure out why I’m breaking multiple bones in my feet. And just in case, I have an appointment with the hospital for special surgery, before the end of March.
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I hate to say this @Stoney but your issues with your foot is not unlike my issues with fractures in my pelvis and lumbar vertebrae compression fractures - all caused by steroid use and an osteopenia score indicating no treatment. All also caused by zero trauma to any of the areas too.
Having such a osteopenia score for someone in their late 50’s (as I am) isn’t unusual either given I’m female - add in PsA and the initial steroid use for that (plus years of steroid use throughout my life for asthma issues) and obviously things change. Inexplicable bone fractures has to be something to do with bone strength - doesn’t it?
Biggest cyber hugs - you must be so fed up.
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Absolutely. Your brain must be spinning with this question. The cause is surely the key factor in determining the longer-term course of action.
Oh Stoney, what a flipping pain & then some. Hang on in there.
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I’m so sorry Stoney, what a month! I do hope you get to the bottom of this soon 
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I’m also sorry to hear this @stoney, it seems to me that you were quite encouraged not that long ago. Shows how quickly our lives can tip over into the ditch. How mobile are you while waiting? Did you have to go off of all meds in prep for surgery?
Will pray for you!
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Right now I’m still attempting to be in the hoping no surgery stage. I’m reasonably mobile, so in that sense I can’t complain. I also need to figure out why I’m breaking bones and not having. Hopefully the endocrinologist will help with that.
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Dear Stoney , feel for you , my osteopenia ,no doubt caused by massive long spells of steroids , was responsible for the breaking of my femur at hip level last year, and did not have hip replacement only because my husband argued with the doctors and managed to turn operation into a grafting one , a procedure consisting in hitching upper femur to hip by means of three metal grafts, procedure which may reversal itself to be insufficient and necrosis of tissues may still require hip replacement, within three years of operation apparently. What I found different, and here strongly hope am not being delusional, is my reaction to an almost identical fall a year or more later, recently, where I just got up again from the pitted tarmack of the Rome road with only a slight swelling of the knee for a few days. The main difference in the interval having been my gradually adopting a carnivore diet regime, which not only allowed for excess body fat loss , but seemingly strengthened bones. Having said that, my right wrist is more or less useless and this right hand responsible for continuous dropping of cell phones, computers, and what have you…still, am recommending to as many people as possible (and being considered a dangerous looney as a result) to adopt a carnivore diet for reduction of inflammatory flares and strengthening of bones, amongst other things. All the best, please keep us posted
Wow, you’ve definitely had a rough go. Breaking your femur is a really bad break. Thank goodness your next fall didn’t have such a bad outcome, and I’m glad that you’ve found something that’s helped. Are you completely off steroids for a while now? And are you taking medication to strengthen your bones as well?
The good news for me is that my bone scan results were excellent. Not only do I not have osteopenia, but my bone density scan was as high as +2.5
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Yep, taking medication to strengthen bones and stopped steroids carnivore diet no gluten grains no seed oils, biologic and mtrxt , seem to be doing ok thanks
Update - the endocrinologist didn’t really find anything, so he’s chalking it all up to poor bone quality. He gave me the option of going on Fosamax for two years to help correct this.
Then there’s the other problem. One of the fractures, the medial cuneiform, is showing signs of healing. The other two in my big toe and the 4th metatarsal are not healing. I’ve been in a boot for 11 weeks now. So I started using a bone stimulator, but I have to say that I’m not feeling particularly optimistic about this working. I’ll know more in 6 weeks. At that point if there’s still not sufficient healing, I think there’ll be a specialized scan to see if it’s capable of healing, and then I’m done, and ready for surgery.
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Hmm, it sounds puzzling. Glad there’s nothing obviously serious, and you’ve got good bone density though. Hope the healing starts to work soon!
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Gosh @Stoney that’s a long old road you’ve been hobbling on. How do they equate poor bone quality with good bone densisty? It almost doesn’t make sense.
I’ve got bone densisty issues of the type that doesn’t require treatment but a history of breaking bones. That history then ups it into a situation where I should be treated for bone densisty issues. However throughout my various breaks, I heal just about normally and in the standard time.
There’s no doubt in my mind it’s all to do with steroid use too.
A boot for 11 weeks - that’s real tedious for you. Hope it sorts itself out without surgery. And soon.
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I’m not really understanding it either. Insufficient fractures usually heal fine. One of the breaks is in a spot with poor blood flow, so that makes sense to me that is problematic. But the one in my big toe should have been completely healed a month ago.
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Good grief, Stoney
What an awful position to be in. And then you see specialists and there is no answer that makes sense.
Specialized scan and then surgery…more waiting and then another round of boots and goodness knows what.
It wasn’t even as if you were having fun at the time it happened …
Seenie
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Exactly! If they’re not healed after this 6 weeks is up I’m requesting surgery on the booted foot.
The big toe fracture extends into the mtp joint space. That one will be a shit show even with proper healing.
The dreaded boot! I feel for you… especially with the warmer humid months. I hope it gets better.
Mine did a complete reversal when I found the right biologic, still amazed.
My electric golf cart just broke this evening! The rear end went clank clank clank! It is a goner! I don’t know what I am going to do…
So hope your feet heal up!
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Do the docs actually come out and say that this is puzzling? What’s the difference between ‘poor bone quality’ and osteoporosis I wonder. Is it perhaps due to calcification as @ablast mentions?
I’d be wanting doctors to level with me, when things aren’t clear I need them to reduce the doctor-patient gap by telling me they’re as foxed as I am, if that’s the case. This must be very hard to endure without a clear way forward.
Are vitamin D levels relevant at all?
You are one very calm & patient person. I hope & hope the bones heal.
I found this, don’t know if it’s reliable but at least addresses the concept of ‘bone quality’:
That pretty much explains my unhappiness with the doctor and why I’m not in a rush to start something like Fosamax. My bone density is fine. Vitamin D is fine. Everything is fine. Except I have multiple fractures that shouldn’t have occurred, that now aren’t healing.
The podiatrist and orthopedist agree that it’s puzzling. The endocrinologist can only offer me Fosamax, even while saying that nothing popped up in my blood work, and it’s probably due to steroid use. That doesn’t make an awful lot of sense to me, with the excellent bone density, and it doesn’t explain why they’re not healing.