question about Osteopenia

So I had my yearly check up with my surgeon, blood taken and in office bone scan. They found that I have Osteopenia and sent me for a full body DEXA scan (which I had this morning).

I am just wondering if anyone else has had this and was able to either reverse it or maintain the density they had at the time of diagosis?

I take my calcium regularly and do 1500mg a day of calcium citrate, BUT I did not always take it so regularly. I had issues with a fissure that had me scared to death to take calcium until I ended up having surgery to repair it.

I know my dr will tell me for sure how bad it is once he gets the results of the DEXA, and we can come up with a plan for how much I should be taking. I am just wondering if anyone else here has gone through this as well.

Thank you!
-Crystal

It's not uncommon since calcium is something we do malabsorb.  I'd be upping my calcium intake if I were in your situation.  What about Vitamin D3 are you taking it?  Did your surgeon order it and if so what was it?  Also did he run a PTH?

I am maintaining my 1500mg for now, but I did order some of the calcium citrate chews from BA so that I can throw some of those in too. I dont have the results from the blood work yet so I may be doing some other vitamin adjustments as well.

Ive taken 1,000 IU of D3 since before surgery, that may have to be upped as well. I take a gel cap D3.

I am not sure what a PTH is, but they took 6 vials of blood to test.

I had a bone scan about 8 months ago. I was in the ostopenia range too. My D level was a 65.  I've upped my dry D3 dosage, taking 7 of the 50K per week vs the 4 per week I took prior to the rny.  Target range for D is 80-90, which is supposed to help with calcium absortpion too. DAVE

Thanks Dave, I may end up having to up my D3 as well. Ive been on 1,000 IU's since before surgery, It may be lower now. Im really interested in getting the blood work results back! 

1000 IU is not going to do anything.  I doubt if that dosage will keep you in the low normal range.  I'd venture an educated guess that most post ops have D deficiencies.  Each pateint is somewhate different in the exact dosage of vitamin D that will get them to the 80+ value, but it is definitely much more than 1000 iu.  Lowest I've heard of is a 10K IU dry D3 daily, and I take 5 times that amount daily. DAVE