62-Year-Old Dad’s Agonizing Back Pain & Numb Feet Turned Out To Be Multiple Myeloma

He ultimately learned his he had four fractures in his back and was close to becoming paralyzed, with a “missing” T3 vertebra.

Now—in remission thanks to successful radiotherapy, chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant, which he underwent within a year and a few months of his diagnosis—Roe is determined to life his “best life” and sharing his story to help others be aware of the signs and symptoms of this disease.

Roe, who is in the midst of maintenance therapy, told PA Real Life in a recent interview, according to The Mirror, “I just live for today. If somebody says, ‘You’ve probably got five years’, why can’t I be the one that doesn’t have five years?

“I’ve always said, ‘I’m going to live until I’m 100.'”

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Recounting the “horrendous” sharp, stabbing pain he initially felt in August 2020, Roe noting how he chose to see a chiropractor first as he likened his pain to a slipped disc or a nerve issue in his back.

His chiropractor chose not to help Roe due to his intense pain, prompting him to see his regular doctor, who suspected the pain was due to a virus.

It wasn’t until he began experiencing numbness that he chose to seek additional medical insight.

He explained further, “I remember pinching myself, and it didn’t hurt as much as you thought it might. But my feet were perhaps the most uncomfortable because it felt like they were being squashed into something, like I was walking in flippers.

“I remember my feet felt like blocks of ice when you’ve been out in the snow, but they were really warm when you touched them.”

His cancer was later confirmed, two months later, after undergoing blood tests and a bone marrow biopsy.

Roe, who praises his wife, daughter, and family for giving him the support to power through this disease, ended up becoming numb from his chest down because his spinal discs had bulged around his T3 vertebra.

During Roe’s recovery period, he needed to wear a back brace and relearn how to walk.

In November 2021 he underwent a stem cell transplant. Then in March 2021 he proposed to his now wife Kayleigh and they married in May 2023.

Roe hopes his story will encourage others to get checked sooner than later, further warning, “All of a sudden you go in with a bad back, and then the next thing in your head is you dying.”

He concluded, “But for me, I’m grateful that I wake up every morning and I don’t take things for granted. I always tell people that if you’re going to do something, do it, make the most of what’s now, because you just never know (what might happen).

“I’ve got myeloma, where there’s no cure, but it’s treatable, and five years down the line, I’m here living my best life.”

Understanding Multiple Myeloma

Multiple myeloma is a rare and incurable type of blood cancer. When you have this cancer, white blood cells called plasma cells (the cells that make antibodies to fight infections) in your bone marrow grow out of proportion to healthy cells. Those abnormal cells leave less room for the healthy blood cells your body needs to fight infections. They can also spread to other parts of your body and cause problems with organs like your kidneys.

Patient Education is Key — Head of Hematology at Johnson & Johnson On Getting Multiple Myeloma Patients Access to Good Information & Care

Sometimes, doctors find multiple myeloma while doing a blood test to look for another condition or when trying to find out what’s causing a patient’s unexplained symptoms.

RELATED: ‘First Study of its Kind’ Shows Diet Can Delay Progression of Cancer — Understanding Multiple Myeloma & The Diseases That Precede It

Doctors use blood and urine tests and imaging tests, such as X-rays or MRIs, to help diagnose multiple myeloma and to guide treatment options. Ultimately, a bone marrow biopsy will confirm the diagnosis.

RELATED: Hematologist and SurvivorNet advisor, Dr. Nina Shah, helps you understand this rare cancer

Multiple myeloma symptoms can range from tiredness, nausea and constipation. Other symptoms may include:

• Weakness, dizziness, and shortness of breath, which are signs of a low red blood cell count, are called anemia.
• Bone pain, which could be a sign of a fracture.
• Urinating too much or too little, muscle cramps, nausea, and vomiting are symptoms of kidney failure.
• Confusion is caused by too much calcium in the blood.
• Frequent infections because you have too few white blood cells to fight them.

It’s important to know that these symptoms could be attributed to other conditions. If you experience any of these symptoms or are concerned about any changes to your body, you should address them promptly with your doctor.

Hematologist-oncologist Dr. Adam Cohen lays out your options during the maintenance phase of treatment

If You Have Back Pain, Should You Get an MRI For Multiple Myeloma?

If you have back pain, you most likely do not have multiple myeloma. But it’s important to know that pain in your back, or bones, is a symptom of myeloma.

So, the question is if you have back pain, should you get an MRI for multiple myeloma? Of course, you should get your symptoms checked out by a specialist until you are content with the explanation received.

Multiple myeloma does cause bone conditions. Why is that and how common is it? According to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, 85% of multiple myeloma patients have some kind of bone damage or loss.

“The most commonly affected areas are the spine, pelvis, and rib cage,” the Foundation explains.

The reason for this bone loss or damage is multiple myeloma disrupts the bone remodeling process. The cancerous myeloma cells keep the cells in the bone responsible for removing old bone and rebuilding new bone from working properly.

The disease can also weaken the bone, resulting in fractures. And it can cause thinning of the bones leading to osteoporosis [meaning the bones are more porous and more likely to fracture].

And “in advanced multiple myeloma, a patient may lose inches from his or her height due to compressed vertebrae over the course of their illness.”

So bone conditions can be a symptom of multiple myeloma.

Dr. Jens Hillengass, Chief of Myeloma at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, notes that most people who endure some type of back pain are experiencing the symptom due to poor posture or lack of exercise, not because they have multiple myeloma.

RELATED: Why Do Some People With Cancer Experience Back or Bone Pain?

“Multiple Myeloma is very rare. If a patient has back pain and there is no reason for that, or no obvious reason for that, then you should go further and do more sophisticated imaging,” Dr. Hillengass adds.

If after an X-ray and an MRI, your doctor believes that something feels off about your back pain, then you should absolutely think about further testing.

Getting a Diagnosis

Sometimes doctors find multiple myeloma while doing a blood test to look for another condition, or when trying to find out what’s causing a patient’s unexplained symptoms.

According to SurvivorNet’s experts, blood tests are also the way your doctor might learn that you have smoldering multiple myeloma or MGUS, because these conditions don’t usually cause symptoms. Smoldering multiple myeloma and MGUS aren’t cancer, but they can sometimes turn into cancer.

The odds that either condition will become cancer are very small, but to be safe, your doctor will probably check you more closely with blood and urine tests, and sometimes a bone marrow biopsy–removing and testing a small sample of the spongy material inside your bones. These tests can help monitor you for changes that signal you’ve switched over to multiple myeloma, and that you need to start treatment for this cancer. You may also need a bone marrow biopsy to help your doctor make the initial diagnosis.

Doctors use blood and urine tests and imaging tests such as X-ray or MRI to help diagnose multiple myeloma and to guide treatment options. Ultimately, a bone marrow biopsy will confirm the diagnosis.

Monitoring your bone strength and health over time will help your doctors understand how, or if, your disease is progressing.

Treatment Options For Multiple Myeloma

Not everyone with multiple myeloma needs treatment right away. If you have smoldering multiple myeloma, your doctor might simply monitor you regularly, to see if your disease progresses.

If you develop symptoms or your doctor thinks you need treatment, there are many options.  Which of these treatments you receive, and how they are sequenced, depend on several factors, and on whether your treatment team thinks you are a good candidate for a bone marrow transplant.

Bone Marrow (Stem Cell) Transplant

This is also known as a stem cell transplant. It is a procedure to replace diseased bone marrow with healthy bone marrow without myeloma cells. Based on multiple factors, your doctor may decide that a stem cell transplant is best for you. The transplant process can be involved and requires multiple steps. Be sure to discuss this with your treating team to understand what is involved and what options are available.

If you’re not a good candidate for chemotherapy, your treatment options include targeted therapies, biologics, and steroids.

Targeted Therapy

Targeted therapy is now available for patients with multiple myeloma, and targets abnormalities in myeloma cells that allow the cancer to survive. Examples of targeted agents your doctor may use include bortezomib (Velcade), carfilzomib (Kyprolis), and ixazomib (Sarclisa). These drugs are either given in a pill or through an IV, and cause myeloma cells to die by preventing the breakdown of certain proteins in myeloma cells. You doctor may also use other targeted agents in the class of medications known as monoclonal antibodies.

Biologic Therapy

Biologic therapy is another class of medication your treatment team may use to treat your myeloma. These medications use your bodys immune system to help fight and kill myeloma cells. This class of medication is most often given in pill form and include medications such as thalidomide (Thalidomid), lenalidomide (Revlimid), and pomalidomide (Pomalyst).

Chemotherapy

Sometimes your treatment team may recommend chemotherapy to treat your myeloma. Chemotherapy uses strong medicine to target cancer cells throughout your body. If your doctor recommends a bone marrow transplant high doses of chemotherapy are used for this purpose.

Steroids

Occasionally, doctors may use corticosteroids such as dexamethasone or prednisone as part of your treatment. Steroids are different from chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and biologic therapy. They work to reduce inflammation throughout your body. Steroids are given as a pill, and are also active against myeloma cells.

Radiation

Radiation uses high-dose X-rays to stop cancer cells from dividing. It is sometimes used to target myeloma in specific areas that may be causing you issues or pain. It is also used if there are tumors or deposits of myeloma cells that need to be treated, such as a plasmacytoma — a tumor made of abnormal plasma cells — of the bone.

Sometimes the cancer can return, or relapse after treatment. If this happens, your doctor can put you on one of the treatments you’ve already tried again, try a new treatment, or recommend that you enroll in a clinical trial.

Any of these treatments can cause side effects, which may include nerve pain and fatigue. Your doctor can adjust your medication if you do have side effects. In general, you should start to feel better once your treatment starts to work.

Extending Your Lifespan With Multiple Myeloma

Then you’ll ultimately reach the maintenance phase of treatment. Now that your doctor has gotten your cancer under control, from here the goal is to keep your disease stable and to maintain your quality of life. Which type of maintenance therapy you get, and what prognosis you can expect, will depend on whether your doctor determines that your multiple myeloma is standard risk or high risk.

One of SurvivorNet’s experts describes the maintenance process for this disease as similar to lawn care. Once you care for your lawn and it’s no longer overgrown (that’s the initial treatment), it will need some tending but with that attention (such as low doses of maintenance drugs), it can remain healthy.

Why the many phases of multiple myeloma are like caring for your lawn, says hematologic cancer specialist, Dr. Sid Ganguly

Sometimes this disease will return, even when you’re on maintenance therapies. You’ll still have treatments available if this happens.

Though it can be daunting to choose treatments for relapsed multiple myeloma, the medical experts at SurvivorNet are here to help you make sense of them. Remember that you do have options, and that the goal which becomes more achievable with each new treatment that’s introduced is to preserve your quality of life and extend your lifespan.

Questions for Your Doctor

If you are facing a multiple myeloma diagnosis, here are some questions to help you begin the conversation with your doctor:

• What stage is my multiple myeloma?
• What are my treatment options?
• What are the possible side effects of your recommended treatment?
• Who will be part of my healthcare team, and what does each member do?
• Can you refer me to a social worker or psychologist who can help me cope with my diagnosis?

Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff

Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.

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