Making lunch can be a real chore for Anne and Robert Eiben. Anne suffers from Parkinson's and osteoporosis. Robert is recovering from a stroke. But something happened a few months ago that gave these two the scare of their lives.

A slip on the sidewalk left Anne alone and immobile. "I dropped the mail and then I dropped me … and I laid out there in the cold for about a half an hour," Anne said.  "Annie was on the ground. I couldn't really see her," Robert added.

At the very least, Robert thought his wife would have a broken hip. She's already suffered two hip fractures from two previous falls -- a common injury for women with osteoporosis. In fact, osteoporosis causes a fracture every 20 seconds.

"It was when my own mother fractured her own hip in her early 70's that it really hit home -- the potential devastating consequences," Abby Abelson, M.D., rheumatic and immunologic disease specialist at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, told Ivanhoe.

Now, Dr. Abelson prescribes a once a year IV drip called Reclast, to help make bones stronger -- replacing the pills many patients take daily, weekly or monthly.

"The medication actually goes into the blood and goes directly to bone and acts on the bone cells directly," Dr. Abelson said.

The drip decreases the osteoclasts -- cells which chew up bone. And increases the osteoblasts -- cells that build up bone. The treatment takes just 20 minutes. Other than possible muscle aches, there are few side effects.

The IV worked for Anne! "It's wonderful, but you have to sit and say how does one shot last a whole year?" Anne said. Even though she was rushed to the hospital, she was back home the same day -- no broken bones -- allowing Anne and Robert to get back to taking care of each other.

"We're like bookends, we support, we hold each other up," Robert said.

If you would like more information, please contact:
Abby Abelson, M.D.
Cleveland Clinic
(216) 444-3876