However, the same steroids also gave me osteopenia, but I’m not being treated for it right now. My internal med doc recently sent me to get a repeat DEXA scan to see where we’re at now, and we had a lengthy chat about the bisphosphonates and AVN. I told her that I understand the incidence of ON/AVN is rare with these meds, but it was also very unlikely that I would develop AVN in the way that I did from the steroids, too! I was one of only 3 patients my orthopod (who specialises in AVN) has ever seen that had AVN in both knees and none in the hips. So – just because a negative effect is rare doesn’t do it for me….I’ve fallen into the rare category on more than one occasion!

That being said, my int med doc told me that she understands the concern and feels it is legitimate, but that these cases were always around invasive dental procedures. She said that if I were to have something of that nature done, she’d have me stop the med a month before and a month after the procedure. She said that sometimes dentists and oral surgeons look at her like she’s nuts, but she would rather be safe than sorry.

I have to say that I really appreciated that!! AVN is a hard thing to live with at age 25. I’m just finishing up 5 months of physical therapy – round 2. This time for severe back pain caused by the way I walk. I can’t even imagine having AVN of the jaw. My orthopedic said I’d always be at a higher risk than normal for getting AVN in other joints, particularly the hips and shoulders. Since diagnosis almost 2 years ago, I’ve only taken steroids 3 times – once an injection in my back, IV one time for an allergic reaction, and one taper for an autoimmune flare up. I had to seriously weigh the benefits vs. risks for all 3 times, and I wasn’t all that comfortable with it, but I knew it had to be done.

I like the tactic being used by my internal med doc in order to try to protect her patients from getting AVN by stopping the med around invasive dental procedures. I don’t think she does it based on fear of lawsuit – she does it because she cares about her patients and doesn’t want to see them suffer further. I really commend her for that – she’s top notch. Even though I understand that I would probably never get AVN of the jaw due to the nature of cases for people who did develop it, I still very much appreciate that she understood my concerns and had a solution. Ultimately it would allow me to take the Fosamax if needed so that I didn’t break a bone, but it still would decrease my risk of getting AVN of the jaw from it.

So let us get it right there are NOT nearly one million practicing doctor’s in this country. So I guess one million of us couldn’t have been in the suit…period.

Here’s another article, which specifically denotes active and retired:

http://www.urologytimes.com/urologytimes/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=122608

What’s more, the original point remains. Physicians, like most people, have no problem filing a lawsuit when it’s them doing the filing and they have been wronged. They believe people should be held responsible for their torts and breaches of contract. Unless the physician is the one at fault, that is.

“Yet what do they do when nearly a million of them want to sue health insurers? Why, file a class action of course. That must be evidence of how bad class actions are. Maybe all those physicians just wanted to enrich attorneys”

Quit the word games and nonsense.

No one made any claim as to their retired or active status. But hey, don’t let the truth get in the way of your nonsense.

Seriously, can you read? I never made a claim as to whether they were retired. I simply said 900,000 physicians are members of this class. That is correct.

As to how many there are, I don’t know. This figure comes in between both mine and Anonymous 7:39. It appears they’re a hard bunch to count.

http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/39/24/23