Hi suzieuk45: I know how you feel, it's so frustrating to be put on a med and not know if it's working. In my case my insurance will only pay for a dexa every 24 mos, and I just can't wait that long to know if what I'm doing is working or not. If you look at the cost and inconvenience of taking these things, it seems absurd, to me to not know if what I'm doing is helping. We can't be expected to spend all this money and time on something without knowing what's going on; plus who can waste 2 years of their life on something like that, we need to know how it's working so if it
isn't we can change our approach.
Below is an article on various bone marker test that can be done as either a blood or urine test, maybe if you took the article with you to the Dr she would order it. When you try to access the link, you have to be registered first to read it, but it's easy to register and it's free.
I've had the 2 hr urine n-telopeptide (NTx) test, but there are others too you can get like the one Helen mentioned. Some Drs feel that the test isn't all that accurate, because there are many things that can go wrong with the collection and testing, but it still can give you an idea if your treatment is working. Even if you factor in the error rate, it has it's purpose for determining bone loss and bone growth. I'm on forteo, and my tests showed increased bone formation markers, so at least I knew the med was doing something, rather than not knowing a thing, which is usually the case if you have to wait for dexa's. It won't give you a bmd score, but it will tell you if you are getting benefits from your med or not.
If you have any trouble accessing the article let me know and I'll try to explain it. The main thing to remember is that certain meds will lower your score and some will raise it, and you just need to know which meds/tests do that. If you want to read anymore on this just look up bonemarker tests.
[url]http://doctor.medscape.com/viewarticle/463099[/url]
Good Luck!!!!
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