Osteoporosis: A Patient’s Tale

My mother was diagnosed with severe Osteoporosis at the age of 78. After a breast cancer operation at 76 this came as a further setback to her. My father having died in the year between didn’t help much either.

My brother found my mother at her home lying on the floor and unable to get up. He immediately took her to hospital where they diagnosed Osteoporosis. Then we took mother home and went into a 24 hour rota between my brothers, my sister in law, and me. Like this we were sure that should anything befall, somebody was there.

After her fall, my mother couldn’t navigate stairs anymore. We had to reorganise her life on one floor. She couldn’t open any drawers anymore, either, so I devised a system of needed stuff in open drawers and closed drawers for the rest. I had to construe book holders for my mother, because she was unable to hold books over any length of time. I have to add maybe, that my mother was word perfect in nine languages, and reading was her one great passion.

But that was just the beginning. Over the next two months my mother couldn’t carry anything anymore over any distance. I had to place books for her on her holders, so she could go from holder to holder if she wanted a change of books. She couldn’t manage the books into the holders anymore.

One morning I found my mother crying in her bed. She had almost broken her finger trying to push the button of her radio. I had to devise an easy click button for her to turn on and off her radio. Then she couldn’t turn the pages in her books anymore, because she couldn’t move the page holders.

At this point I began to understand my aunt who had thrown herself out of a window on the seventh floor because of her Osteoporosis. She had been 82 at the time; it had happened three years before my mother fell ill.

At this point of her becoming virtually helpless, my mother was diagnosed with liver cancer. We had a long talk, several hours, after which my mother decided not to have the cancer treated at all. Liver cancer guarantees a fast spreading of the illness, as the liver virtually distributes it everywhere on express lanes. My mother had decided that she preferred that to treatment after which she would still be a helpless invalid because of Osteoporosis.