Transcript
Dr. Rita Roy:
Hi everyone. My name is Dr. Rita Roy, CEO of the National Spine Health Foundation, and I’m your host for the Get Back to It podcast, where we tell real stories of healing and recovery.
What does it mean to “get back to it”? It means overcoming a spine problem through treatments that work so you can return to the people and activities you love. Whatever that looks like for you, it means getting back to your life. We’re here to share the success stories of people who have done just that—and some of these stories you’re not going to believe.
Today’s guest is Belinda Rogers, a registered nurse and board-certified functional medicine practitioner from Oklahoma City whose life changed unexpectedly in October 2025.
Without any fall, injury, or accident, Belinda found herself in the emergency room with sudden and severe back pain. Her diagnosis was shocking: compression fractures at T8 and T9. Further evaluation later revealed severe osteoporosis with dangerously low bone density scores.
As a healthcare professional, Belinda understood medicine, but navigating her own diagnosis would challenge everything she thought she knew. Faced with conflicting treatment recommendations, she chose to advocate for herself, seek additional opinions, and pursue a recovery plan centered on healing, physical therapy, and rebuilding strength.
Today, Belinda is sharing her story to raise awareness about osteoporosis, especially among women who may never realize they are at risk until a fracture occurs. Her journey is one of resilience, education, and turning a difficult diagnosis into a mission to help others.
Belinda, welcome to our show. I’d love to start by going back to October 2025. You were living an active, healthy, vibrant life, and then suddenly things changed. Walk us through what happened.
Belinda Rogers:
First of all, thank you, Rita, and thank you to the National Spine Health Foundation for having me. I’m honored to be here, and I hope sharing my experience might help others.
It really began when I went to the emergency room with severe back pain. I hadn’t fallen or injured myself, so I had no idea what was causing the pain. It was a real surprise.
Dr. Rita Roy:
Did the doctors do an X-ray? Was that one of the first things they did when you went into the ER?
Belinda Rogers:
Actually, they sent me straight for a CT scan.
Dr. Rita Roy:
When they told you they saw compression fractures in your thoracic spine, what was your reaction?
Belinda Rogers:
Honestly, I was shocked. I thought, “How did I fracture? How did this happen without an injury?”
I’m very blessed that I work from home. I walk about five miles every day, but I hadn’t fallen or had any significant injury. I remember looking at them in shock, thinking, “What do you mean I have a compression fracture? How can that be?”
Dr. Rita Roy:
And not just one, but two vertebrae. That’s shocking.
The fractures were really only part of the story, though. Soon after that, you learned about osteoporosis. Tell us about that moment.
Belinda Rogers:
The bone density results were staggering.
After the emergency room diagnosed the compression fractures, they referred me to a pain specialist. At my first appointment, he pulled up the scan from the ER and essentially said, “This doesn’t look so great. We’re probably going to do a kyphoplasty.”
My head was still spinning. Even though I’m a medical professional, I didn’t fully understand what that would entail.
Fortunately, he said, “Let’s get an MRI and a bone density scan before we jump into all of that.” So I had the bone density scan about two or three weeks later.
My T-score was -4.2 in my spine and -3.9 in my femoral neck.
Dr. Rita Roy:
I can’t believe that.
Belinda Rogers:
It’s crazy. Back in 2018, I had a bone density scan and it was normal. It didn’t even show osteopenia.
I kept thinking, “How did I get here? Are you sure you’re looking at the right chart? Is this really what’s going on?”
Dr. Rita Roy:
That’s actually a reasonable consideration—“Did we mix up the charts? Is this really my test?”
One thing that stands out in your story is that you felt like you were doing everything right. You walk five miles a day. Tell me more about your daily routine and how you approached your health.
Belinda Rogers:
I really did feel like I was doing everything right. I walk five miles a day. I eat a clean, healthy diet. I’m gluten-free and sugar-free. I mostly drink water, choose organic foods and protein, and live an active lifestyle.
That’s why the diagnosis was so shocking. I thought I was doing everything right, yet osteoporosis was still my diagnosis.
Dr. Rita Roy:
As I’m looking at you during this conversation, I see a young, healthy, vibrant woman who looks like the picture of health, fitness, and wellness.
That’s why we say osteoporosis is a silent disease—until it isn’t. How would you know?
That’s really why we’re here talking about this today.
As a healthcare professional yourself, once you received the diagnosis and those test results, you were faced with very different treatment recommendations. You had severely low bone density and fractures in your spine. The question became: What should you do next?
Tell us about the different opinions you received.
Belinda Rogers:
The first specialist I saw was a pain specialist because that’s who the ER referred me to. He wasn’t a spine specialist.
As I mentioned, during that first visit—before I had even had the DXA scan—he was already talking about doing a kyphoplasty. He also asked if I wanted a spinal injection to help with the pain.
My mind was spinning. I didn’t really understand what the kyphoplasty was, and everything felt very rushed.
I don’t take pain medication because I don’t tolerate it well. I was in a lot of pain, but I also didn’t want to take steroids without understanding everything.
I left that appointment feeling very conflicted.
When I got home, I started researching kyphoplasty. As I understood it, a balloon would be inserted into the area of the fractured vertebrae and the space would then be filled with bone cement.
The more I thought about it, the more concerned I became. My fractures were around T8 and T9, right in the middle of my back, and my bone density was already -4.2. I wondered what putting cement there might mean for the vertebrae above and below those levels.
Would I continue to fracture when I hadn’t even had a fall or injury in the first place?
I didn’t know if it was the best course of action, so I sought a second opinion.
Dr. Rita Roy:
How did you decide whom to see for that second opinion?
Belinda Rogers:
I sought out an actual spine specialist. It took about three weeks to get an appointment, but I was so glad I waited.
He explained things very much along the lines of what I had been thinking. He recommended a more conservative approach with physical therapy and a back brace.
He explained that, given my bone density score, putting cement in the middle of my spine could potentially contribute to additional fractures above or below that area. I could potentially end up needing more procedures.
Dr. Rita Roy:
So the spine surgeon advised you against kyphoplasty at that time?
Belinda Rogers:
Yes. With the bone density scores I had, he recommended against kyphoplasty.
Dr. Rita Roy:
Then you moved forward with his recommendations for bracing, physical therapy, and addressing the osteoporosis. Is that what happened next?
Belinda Rogers:
Yes. I started physical therapy and wore a brace.
He also referred me to a nurse practitioner here in Oklahoma who focuses on osteoporosis. I also saw an endocrinologist.
There was discussion about bone-health medications, of course. The nurse practitioner also wanted to take a broader approach and investigate why I was losing bone so quickly.
We looked at urine calcium, parathyroid function, and other factors to try to determine what could be contributing to such rapid bone loss.
Dr. Rita Roy:
I think you’re fortunate that you had the 2018 DXA scan showing normal bone density. Over the course of roughly six or seven years, you went from normal bone density to severe osteoporosis. That is a relatively short window.
It made sense for your practitioner to investigate whether something metabolic or physiological was happening in your body that might be contributing.
What happened next? Did you begin conservative therapy based on the nurse practitioner’s recommendations? Did you start a bone-building medication?
Belinda Rogers:
My calcium levels were fairly decent, and I wasn’t losing excessive calcium through my urine.
I do have hypothyroidism, but my thyroid levels weren’t terribly out of range. We also determined that hyperparathyroidism wasn’t the issue.
Then we did a GI-MAP test and discovered severe gut inflammation and H. pylori.
In 2020, I had a small bowel obstruction, and they removed about five and a half feet of my small intestine. Honestly, ever since then, I haven’t been the same gastrointestinally.
Even though I’m a healthcare practitioner, I didn’t realize at the time how systemic and gut inflammation could potentially affect bone health.
Combine that with hypothyroidism, having been on thyroid medication, having taken an SSRI for a number of years, always being fairly thin, and not having a lot of muscle mass—I really feel like there was a perfect storm.
A lot of things were brewing beneath the surface.
On the outside, I looked healthy. I was walking, eating a clean diet, and doing all the things I thought were right. But inside, there were factors I wasn’t aware of that could have been contributing to my bone loss.
Dr. Rita Roy:
We’re learning more and more about how central the gut microbiome is to our overall health.
The absorption of nutrients and minerals is critically important. If that isn’t happening the way it should, it can affect the rest of the body.
Belinda Rogers:
Exactly. The GI-MAP test revealed a lot. It showed H. pylori, severe gut dysbiosis, and very low pancreatic enzymes, including low elastase.
Essentially, I wasn’t absorbing the nutrients I was trying to consume. I thought I was eating well, getting enough protein, and doing all the right things, but I wasn’t properly absorbing those nutrients.
Dr. Rita Roy:
Tell us what recovery began to look like. You were wearing a brace. How many hours a day did you wear it, and what did that phase of recovery look like?
Belinda Rogers:
I wore the brace for about a month. My doctor didn’t want me to become dependent on it because he wanted me to build and use the muscles supporting my spine.
I also went to physical therapy for about two months.
Recovery was gradual. There were days when simply getting dressed felt like a victory.
I feel like I have a pretty high pain tolerance. I wasn’t taking pain medication because it makes me feel lousy, so I was really focusing on physical therapy, doing what I needed to do, and taking things slowly.
It was probably about three months before I really started feeling like myself again.
I could still bathe, dress myself, and do everyday things, but it was painful.
With osteoporosis, especially for postmenopausal women—or really anyone who receives an osteoporosis diagnosis—you can begin to feel fragile.
Dr. Rita Roy:
And that feeling of fragility can become a fearful and isolating place to be.
It’s encouraging that three months into treatment, you were beginning to feel like you could get through daily life, care for yourself, and do the things you needed to do.
Belinda, were you taking an osteoporosis medication at that point?
Belinda Rogers:
No, and I’m still not.
Dr. Rita Roy:
Were you increasing your calcium intake or managing your bone health in other ways?
Belinda Rogers:
Yes. I wanted to treat the H. pylori and work on getting the gut and systemic inflammation under control.
I also started strength training. Even though I had been walking regularly and getting cardiovascular exercise, I wasn’t doing much to actively build muscle.
I started focusing more on protein intake. I was already taking vitamin D and vitamin K, and I added calcium.
I’m not completely ruling out bone-health medications, but I wanted to work on my gut health and see what I could do from a more natural perspective first.
Dr. Rita Roy:
That’s also consistent with your training as a functional medicine practitioner.
Looking back on all of this, you eventually began connecting the dots: menopause, no hormone replacement therapy because of family history, systemic inflammation, gut health, and certain medications.
Tell us about putting your overall medical picture together for yourself.
Belinda Rogers:
I don’t think I mentioned earlier that I have lupus, Sjögren’s syndrome, and Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism.
I also went into menopause early, at age 42.
Because my mother has a history of breast cancer, there was concern about hormone replacement therapy. The Women’s Health Initiative findings were also very influential at the time, so I went many years without hormone replacement therapy.
As I mentioned, I had also taken an SSRI.
Looking back, I think there was this perfect storm brewing inside my body that contributed to rapid bone loss, but I wasn’t aware of how all of these things could potentially affect my bones.
Dr. Rita Roy:
Belinda, one of the most powerful parts of your story is how this experience has changed your perspective.
Belinda Rogers:
It’s opened my eyes to how silent osteoporosis can be.
It doesn’t announce itself until something breaks. There often aren’t warning signs. In many cases, osteoporosis isn’t diagnosed until a fracture occurs.
For people listening, don’t assume osteoporosis can’t happen to you. I did everything I thought was right, and yet osteoporosis still happened.
That’s why I think it’s so important for women to understand their risk sooner. Ask questions. Know your risk factors. Talk to your healthcare provider about bone health before a fracture occurs.
If you’ve gone through menopause and aren’t on hormone replacement therapy, if you have a thyroid condition, or if you take certain medications, such as an SSRI, have that conversation with your doctor.
I know routine bone-density screening may not be recommended for everyone until later in life, but if you have risk factors or concerns, ask your healthcare provider whether earlier screening might be appropriate.
Dr. Rita Roy:
A DXA scan, or bone-density scan, is also a very easy test. There’s nothing difficult or painful about it. It’s essentially an X-ray.
And depending on where you have it done, even if you have to pay out of pocket, it may not be prohibitively expensive. It can provide incredibly useful information.
Belinda Rogers:
Exactly. In 2018, my bone density was good, so I thought I was fine.
Dr. Rita Roy:
Looking at your overall picture and putting the pieces together afterward, it’s easy to think, “I should have known these medications could have a systemic impact,” or, “I should have thought about this.”
But why would you necessarily think that?
That’s part of why we’re here: to raise awareness about something many people simply don’t think about.
One of the challenges in osteoporosis and bone health is determining who “owns” the bone. Is it orthopedic surgeons? Spine surgeons? Pain specialists? Primary care doctors?
For heart health, we know about cardiology. For lung problems, we have pulmonology. But when people have concerns about their bones, it isn’t always clear who they should see.
That represents a significant gap in education and treatment.
Bone health isn’t going to belong to any one specialty. Every specialty has to have its lane, whether that’s gynecology and women’s health, rheumatology, endocrinology, orthopedic surgery, or spine surgery.
If a physician is treating a fracture, we also want to be thinking about how to prevent the next fracture.
Everyone needs to consider bone health because there isn’t a single practitioner solely responsible for it. That’s one of the things we’re working to address.
Belinda Rogers:
I think that’s such an important point because I’ve seen nearly every type of provider you just mentioned, and sometimes it feels like each person assumes someone else is handling the bone health piece.
Dr. Rita Roy:
Exactly. Everyone points in another direction: “That provider will handle it,” and then sometimes nobody does.
We have to improve that.
This is a disease we know how to diagnose and have treatment options for, so we need to make sure patients are actually being diagnosed and receiving appropriate care.
Belinda Rogers:
If my story encourages even one woman to ask about her bone health, get a DXA scan, or seek a second opinion when something doesn’t feel right, then sharing it has been worth it.
As we’ve said, osteoporosis is often invisible until a fracture occurs, but there may be opportunities to identify and address it before that happens.
Even as a healthcare practitioner, I wish I had known more about some of the factors that may contribute to bone loss.
I have so many friends who are around my age or younger, and I encourage them to have these conversations with their doctors.
Are you getting enough protein? Are you taking medications that could affect your bone health? Have you gone through menopause? Should you discuss hormone replacement therapy or other options with your provider?
Hormone replacement therapy isn’t appropriate for everyone, and there are important considerations, but don’t be afraid to have the conversation.
I also wish I had investigated some of these things earlier.
And if you aren’t strength training, consider starting, if it’s appropriate for you. Muscle is incredibly important.
I think sometimes women are afraid to go to the gym because they think, “I don’t want to become too muscular.” But most of us aren’t trying to become Arnold Schwarzenegger!
Building and maintaining muscle is important.
We live in a society where being thin is often emphasized. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to look good in your clothes, but if your bones and muscles underneath aren’t where they need to be, that can affect your long-term health.
I spent a lot of years wanting to be a certain size without realizing how that might fit into the bigger picture of where I am now.
Dr. Rita Roy:
That’s great advice.
Weight-bearing exercise and strength training are important. We’re not trying to become Miss Olympia. We’re trying to preserve muscle.
Sarcopenia, or loss of muscle mass, naturally becomes more common as we age. Muscle tissue is also metabolically active.
Maintaining muscle can support movement, mobility, balance, and metabolism.
Those are great insights, Belinda, both from your perspective as a provider and from your experience as a patient.
Now that you’ve experienced both sides—as a nurse caring for other people and as a patient yourself—what have you learned about navigating the healthcare system and advocating for yourself?
Belinda Rogers:
It has humbled me.
As a nurse, I’m used to being the person taking care of somebody else. Suddenly, I was the patient.
I was scared. I was in pain. I was trying to make decisions about my own health.
I realized how vulnerable that feels, even when you understand the medical system.
It taught me how important it is for patients to feel heard and to understand their options.
It has also reinforced something I believe very strongly now: You can respect your healthcare providers and still ask questions, seek other opinions, and advocate for yourself.
Be a strong voice for yourself.
If something doesn’t feel right, or if you feel like you aren’t being heard, it’s okay to get a second opinion, like I did. It’s okay to seek additional guidance from another provider.
Things can fall through the cracks in our healthcare system, so it’s important to advocate for yourself.
Do your research. Go to appointments prepared with questions and make sure you ask the things that are important to you.
Dr. Rita Roy:
And we’re not saying you should keep searching until you find a provider who tells you what you want to hear. That’s not the point.
What we’re saying is that if something doesn’t feel right, you’re confused, or you want to understand whether other options exist, it’s appropriate to seek more information.
Educate yourself.
What sources do you use for education, Belinda? Where would you encourage people to find trusted information?
Belinda Rogers:
I look at PubMed and research studies. I want to understand the evidence and what the outcomes have been.
It’s important because there’s a lot of misinformation out there.
Now we also have AI tools. AI can be incredibly useful, but I would caution people about simply putting a question into ChatGPT, Claude, or another AI tool and assuming everything it generates is accurate.
Research and verify what you’re reading.
Look to trusted organizations, like the National Spine Health Foundation and other national organizations that provide evidence-based information.
You have great information on your website, so I encourage people to seek out those trusted sources.
Dr. Rita Roy:
That’s great feedback, and thank you for mentioning our resources.
We work very hard to create unbiased, evidence-based, trusted information that supports patient decision-making.
We want people to understand their conditions, understand their treatment options, and know what questions to ask their providers.
That’s also what this podcast is about: sharing real-life stories and giving other people hope and a bit of a roadmap for beginning their own journey toward wellness and living their best life.
What does “getting back to it” mean for you, Belinda?
Belinda Rogers:
Getting back to it doesn’t mean pretending this never happened or trying to become exactly who I was before the fractures.
For me, it means getting my independence back, rebuilding my strength and confidence, and not living in fear of another fracture.
I’m more knowledgeable now. I’m more aware. I’m not pretending this could never happen again, but living in fear isn’t how I want to live my life.
There was a time when simply getting dressed felt like an accomplishment.
Now I appreciate things I used to take for granted: being able to move, work, exercise, and live my life.
Getting back to those things means doing them with a much greater appreciation.
Dr. Rita Roy:
That’s fantastic.
As we wrap up our conversation, do you have any final thoughts you’d like to share? Your story is remarkable, and you’ve shared so many valuable insights.
Belinda Rogers:
First, thank you for having me.
For those listening, even if you think you’re doing everything right, take some time to understand your risk factors.
Look at your medications. Are you getting enough protein? Are you doing strength training?
Advocate for yourself and learn about your bone health before you experience a fracture.
As women age, we shouldn’t be afraid of these conversations.
And if you have osteoporosis, don’t let the diagnosis leave you feeling powerless. Empower yourself. Knowledge is power.
There are things we can do to support our bone health, address bone loss, and become stronger.
Seek out evidence-based information and become your own advocate.
Dr. Rita Roy:
Belinda, I didn’t ask you earlier: Have your T-scores improved?
Belinda Rogers:
I haven’t had another bone-density scan yet. My original scan was in October 2025, so I’m coming up on a year.
I’ll probably have another bone-density scan within the next six months or so, and I’m hoping to see improvement.
Dr. Rita Roy:
We’ll keep our fingers crossed for you. You’ll have to let us know how it goes. We may need to do an update!
Belinda, your experience is a powerful reminder that spine health and bone health are deeply connected and that sometimes our biggest health challenges arrive without warning.
Your willingness to advocate for yourself, seek answers, and use your experience to educate others is truly inspiring. We’re grateful to have you as part of our community.
By sharing your story, you’re helping others recognize potential risks, ask better questions, and take proactive steps toward protecting their health—and ultimately toward living independently and on their own terms.
Thank you for being a Spinal Champion.
At the National Spine Health Foundation, we believe deeply in providing hope through shared stories and trusted education. Millions of people live with spine-related pain and conditions, and it can feel isolating—but you’re not alone.
To hear more stories from our Spinal Champions and access trusted spine health resources, visit spinehealth.org.
Thank you for listening.
When registered nurse and functional medicine practitioner Belinda Rogers suddenly developed severe back pain, she never imagined she would be diagnosed with two spinal compression fractures—and severe osteoporosis.
Belinda had no fall, accident, or injury. She walked five miles a day, maintained a healthy diet, and considered herself active and health-conscious. Yet a bone density scan revealed a T-score of -4.2 in her spine and -3.9 in her femoral neck, a shocking change from a normal bone density scan just years earlier.
In this episode of Get Back to It, Belinda joins Dr. Rita Roy to share how her unexpected diagnosis forced her to become the patient after years of caring for others as a healthcare professional. She discusses seeking a second opinion after receiving conflicting treatment recommendations, navigating her recovery from spinal compression fractures, and investigating the potential factors contributing to her bone loss.
Belinda also shares how the experience changed the way she thinks about strength, nutrition, menopause, medications, gut health, and the importance of advocating for yourself within the healthcare system.
Her story is a powerful reminder that osteoporosis can be silent until a fracture occurs—and looking healthy on the outside doesn’t always tell the full story.
Listen as Belinda shares what she wishes she had known sooner, why understanding your individual risk factors matters, and what “getting back to it” means as she rebuilds her strength, confidence, and independence.
