Shanette Eaden

I first heard of Osteoporosis when I was a kid and saw Giget aka Hollywood actress, Sally Field, talk about it on a TV commercial. I can remember seeing the commercial hundreds of times but never understanding what osteoporosis was. It was during a routine physical that my doctor suggested that I have a bone density scan done. While I didn’t have a full understanding of the importance behind such a test, I wasn’t too worried about what my results would be as I believed I was still very young and healthy.  Unfortunately, my optimism soon got side swiped by a dose of reality when my doctor called me to tell me that the results from my bone density scan show I have something called Osteopenia. My doctor described osteopenia as the precursor to osteoporosis. My test results showed that the bones on one side of my body were weaker than the other side. This news was shocking to me. How did I get here? I was just 40 years old and, in my opinion, too young to suffer from such a condition. I felt healthy and certainly didn’t feel as if I had weak bones.