It’s essential to find the proper Fibrous Dysplasia treatment if you, or someone close to you has been diagnosed with Fibrous Dysplasia. This is particularly true because the condition shares many common symptoms with bone cancer, making it possible for doctors to draw improper conclusions about the condition itself, which can lead to improper treatment.
An accurate diagnosis of Fibrous Dysplasia means that you have options for how to treat the condition, which can vary depending on the severity and symptoms that you’re experiencing. Unfortunately, this also means that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to treatment, and you may need to try many combinations to help alleviate symptoms in the skin, skeleton, and endocrine organs.
Fibrous Dysplasia can lead to long-term suffering, such as limping, pain, or bone fractures. But with a good long-term management strategy that includes your health care provider, you can minimize pain and bone damage over time, as well as maximize your enjoyment of life.
What’s The Difference Between Fibrous Dysplasia and McCune-Albright Syndrome?
Not every person with Fibrous Dysplasia also has McCune-Albright Syndrome, however every person who has McCune-Albright Syndrome also has Fibrous Dysplasia. Fibrous Dysplasia is a chronic bone disease, while McCune-Albright Syndrome includes the bone disease and often includes negative effects in the skin and endocrine system.
What Are My Options For Fibrous Dysplasia Treatment?
Your primary goal in managing and treating Fibrous Dysplasia is to preserve and protect your bones and the healthy tissue surrounding them. Patients can experience very mild symptoms, making the condition unnoticeable. However, it’s also possible to experience painful, swollen bones that cause long term damage if untreated.
While there is no cure for this disorder, the two main options to help relieve pain, and repair the bones and surrounding tissues are taking various forms of medication, and undergoing surgery.
Medications
Work closely with your doctor to note the severity of your particular condition. They may recommend medication that may help to proactively build up stronger bones, alleviate painful bone conditions, or reduce the scar-like tissue that can become problematic in the future. Medication may aim to treat:
- Bone loss
- Bone pain
- Bone deformity
- Bone curvature
- Bone fractures
- Swelling of bones or joints
Surgeries
Fibrous Dysplasia can cause long-term complications, which can lead to crippling pain, or deformed bones. Your doctor may recommend surgeries designed to reshape bone structures so they don’t rub against one another, or relieve pain by shaving or removing some material. Symptoms that surgery may help alleviate include:
- Uneven growth or deformed bones
- Bone fracture, or weakened, bending bones
- Relieving pinched nerves to aid hearing and vison problems
- Vision and hearing loss from deformed facial bones
- Arthritis from deformed leg or pelvic bones
Rehabilitation
Your doctor may also have some strength training exercises that help you maintain healthy bones and joints. These are aimed to help build muscle tissue around bones affected by Fibrous Dysplasia, and can act as both a cushion against bone fractures and a healthy habit of lifelong self-care to prevent a worsening condition.
Your Key Takeaway
Fibrous Dysplasia effects different sufferers in many different ways. It may be unnoticeable and cause little to no long-term harm, or it may cause significant pain and suffering, requiring a proper Fibrous Dysplasia treatment. Because of the rarity and multi-symptomatic nature of the disease, there is no one right answer in how to best treat your condition. But a lifelong approach to management that includes experimenting with different combinations of treatments can be an effective way to stay pain-free, and minimize long term damage of your bones
