Patient of the Month- Nicole S.
I was born premature, broke bones easily throughout childhood, and had a few setbacks with development. My parents didn’t think much of it thinking that it was because I was premature.
Fast forward to when I was 11-13 years old, I started having pain in my hips. Was told it was all in my head by doctors and misdiagnosed bursitis…
Fast forward to when I hit adulthood, I enlisted when I was 18, thought I miraculously passed the physical to get in and then got a ship date.
March of 2021, I shipped out for Army Basic Training.
April of 2021, I ran 5 miles and rucked (which is military code for hike) for 7 miles with 35lbs on my back until I was forced to go to sick call by my drill sergeants because I was limping so bad they thought I was a liability and going to fall over. Turns out, I was.
May of 2021, I had a bone scan with radiation done, several places in my back and all the way down my legs, including my hips, lit up with fractures. I also had to do a DEXA scan, and was ruled “unfit for military training”. I was then sent to medical hold and waited to “heal” so I could go home.
June of 2021, I was told I could take off the cam boot, see the physical therapist and start the going home process.
In July of 2021, I was sent to the discharge unit and had to walk 9 miles a day for meals, which only aggravated the injuries I still had.
August of 2021, I’m home and going into podiatry to get a civilian doctor’s opinion on my foot because I knew it was still broken. They pretty much told me I was crazy because nothing showed up in my x-rays since they were stress fractures, put me in cam boot, and referred me to another podiatrist. I saw this new doctor, was told we’ll do surgery if it’s not healed in a few months, keeping me in the boot and adding a bone stimulator.
November of 2021, I went back in to see the same podiatrist, was told no to surgery and sent to bone health to figure out why I wasn’t healing.
In December of 2021, I saw Bone Health and did several blood tests. I was then loosely diagnosed with HPP until it was confirmed later.
January of 2022, I was sent down to the University of Minnesota to see a HPP specialist and was asked to do several tests including a genetic blood test to look for the mutation.
February of 2022, I was officially diagnosed with HPP with the genetic testing confirming.
May of 2022, I was approved for and started treatment and let the problems with my foot go until I hit my 6 month mark with treatment since that’s when my specialist thinks we’ll start to see results in my bones.
August of 2022, I decided to make another podiatry appointment since my foot started bothering me again and we’re coming up on 6 months.
September of 2022, I saw physical therapy and was told I have mild scoliosis, arthritis, and a disc bulge in my back. I saw podiatry again and was told that because it’s been so long since I didn’t get proper treatment for my foot, I now have a displaced bone which should’ve been taken care of and seen in previous x-rays but wasn’t. I have to do a repeat MRI to see if my stress fractures healed, and then we’ll be scheduling surgery to fix the misplaced bone and possibly replacing the bad bone.
Finally, after almost two years since initially getting hurt, I’m getting the care that I need! Despite the several different diagnoses and the setbacks, I haven’t let that stop me in life either!
If you would like to make a donation to Soft Bones, in honor of Nicole, please click here.
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