When Bone Loses Blood: Avascular Necrosis Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe avascular necrosis, also called osteonecrosis, when part of a bone loses its blood supply. Hips dominate, but writers also describe knees, shoulders, an ankle, a wrist bone and the jaw. Many trace it to steroids taken for lupus, Crohn's, leukaemia, multiple sclerosis, polymyalgia, a kidney transplant or three weeks in intensive care. Others link it to sickle cell disease, Gaucher disease, HIV, radiotherapy, a talus fracture, a motorbike accident, a childhood hip brace, thirty-two years of commercial diving, or heavy drinking they found hard to admit. The people range from a 19-year-old who finished leukaemia treatment to a woman having surgery at 78, and include a pub owner in Cork, a taxi driver in Accra, a theatre nurse, a netball player, a professional dancer and a mother whose six-year-old began to limp. Places run from Kingston to Karachi and from Halifax to Adelaide. Writers describe months on crutches, a bone graft taken from the leg, a paid injection one writer is still unsure about, watchful waiting, and hip replacements, sometimes both sides. A wife writes about caring for her husband. Not every story goes well: a small operation that did not hold, a 14-month wait, jaw problems that will last for life, and pain that has not gone away.

Who it's for

For anyone newly told they have avascular necrosis or living with it after steroids, cancer treatment, injury or a long-term illness, and for the partners and parents beside them.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 235 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.