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‘It stopped my life:’ Back pain leads to unexpected diagnosis for new Central Florida mom

Compression fracture led to excruciating pain for Ultima Espino

ORLANDO, Fla. – Three months after having her second baby boy, a Central Florida women thought she had simply tweaked her back — but in reality, it was much more serious.

Ultima Espino would eventually be diagnosed with pregnancy and lactation induced osteoporosis.

The pain began to get worse. Little did she know her excruciating pain was caused by compression fractures in her spine.

“It stopped my life,” Espino said. “After that fourth one, I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t get in and out of bed. Basically, when I lay down, I felt paralyzed. I couldn’t do anything for myself. I couldn’t shower, change, I had a walker at the house at the ripe age of 34. I couldn’t do anything for myself, it stopped my life completely.”

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Espino said the compression fractures were triggered by things like sneezing or tripping on carpet.

She said the scariest part was not knowing what was wrong.

Her doctor, Orlando Health Bone Specialist Dr. Christine Jablonski, just so happened to be at a conference where she figured out Espino’s condition.

“The keynote was giving their speech on pregnancy and lactation-induced osteoporosis,” Espino said. “And she marched right up to him after his talk, gave my symptoms. And he said, yeah, I would absolutely diagnose this woman with this condition.”

Espino said prior to figuring out her diagnosis, her doctors already had her on a path to recovery.

“Having the physicians here that trust in me, immediately got me to imaging, got me to MRI, It wasn’t in my head like this level of pain wasn’t in my head,” Espino said. “They diagnosed it. They held my hand the entire way to that diagnosis.”

Espino said she learned from Dr. Jablonski that pregnancy and lactation-induced osteoporosis can occur when the body uses calcium to grow a baby and produce breast milk.

“Two pregnancies and an overproduction of breast milk on both of them, it was just a perfect storm to probably make my bones like Swiss cheese and make them very brittle,” Espino said.

Dr. Jablonski said that she had never seen this condition before.

“In my research, it seems like it’s between four and five women in 10,000 have this happen, but there are thoughts that maybe it’s underreported,” Jablonski said.

Although Espino still experiences some pain, she is channeling it into purpose by sharing her story to help other women who might be in her position.

“I’m hopeful that this type of messaging will help women postpartum trust their bodies,” Espino said. “And if there’s something wrong, to say something. And if someone’s just telling them it’s just postpartum, find someone else, trust someone else, listen to your gut,” Espino said.


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About the Author
Emily McLeod headshot

Emily joined WKMG-TV in November 2022, returning home to Central Florida.