Understanding Multiple Myeloma
- June Davis, 57, was misdiagnosed for six painful months before she found out she had multiple myeloma. She was told she had a pulled muscle and a back defect before an MRI eventually revealed the truth.
- Multiple myeloma is a blood cancer involving plasma cells a certain kind of mature white blood cell in the bone marrow that helps fight infection by producing proteins that help your immune system fend itself against germs.
- For people with multiple myeloma, cancerous plasma cells, or myelomas, grow uncontrollably in the bone marrow and crowd out healthy white blood cells. This, in turn, inhibits the immune system's ability to fight off infection which leads to fatigue.
Davis, a 57-year-old mother of three, was in extreme pain before her diagnosis. After going to the doctors, she was prescribed painkillers and told that she likely had a pulled muscle. But the pills were no help, and her back spasms worsened.
Read More"I used to walk to work and back but when it all started I felt like my legs were in front of my body and I was being left behind it was weird,” she said of her symptoms. "It didn't really feel right, but I didn't think much of it. But then it got worse and worse. I was in agony."
And the pain she felt never subsided. She was even rushed to the hospital after collapsing at a later date only to be sent home with more painkillers. Finally, it got to the point where she was bedridden for two weeks and incapable of standing. With their desperation growing, Davis’ family took her back to the hospital where they finally got an MRI that provided some answers: She had a broken spine and tumors on her back and shoulder blades. Eventually, she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma.
"When they told me it was myeloma, I had no idea what it was. I had never heard of it,” she said. "It's changed me as a person. I am on an up and down rollercoaster. I have good days and bad days. I was active but I had to give up work and my social contacts with people as I'm not working and see less people."
As she shares her story now, Davis hopes to educate people about her cancer and prevent someone else for suffering for so long like she did.
“A simple blood test in the beginning would have shown straight away what was wrong with me and I wouldn't have gone through what I went through and had as much damage done to my body,” she said. “I just want people to be more aware of myeloma. People shouldn't go through this much pain.”
What Is Multiple Myeloma?
Multiple myeloma is a type of blood cancer involving plasma cells a certain kind of mature white blood cell in the bone marrow that helps fight infection by producing proteins that help your immune system fend itself against germs. So, in order to understand multiple myeloma, it's important to talk about the bone marrow.
What Is a Blood Cancer How Is It Different?
"The bone marrow is the factory that makes all of the cells that wind up in our bloodstream," Dr. Mikkael Sekeres, the chief of the Division of Hematology at the University of Miami Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, previously told SurvivorNet.
The bone marrow makes red blood cells which bring oxygen to our tissues, white blood cells which fight infections and platelets which help stop bleeding. For people with multiple myeloma, cancerous plasma cells, or myelomas, grow uncontrollably in the bone marrow and crowd out healthy white blood cells. This, in turn, inhibits the immune system's ability to fight off infection which leads to fatigue.
Eventually, the myelomas grow too large in the bone marrow which can cause bone fractures. Myelomas can also lead to kidney damage because these cancerous cells release abnormally high levels of antibodies into the bloodstream which eventually build up in the kidney since its unable to process these extra proteins.
University of California at San Francisco hematologist-oncologist Dr. Nina Shah says cases of multiple myeloma can be grouped into categories that help physicians decide on the appropriate courses of treatment.
"We tend to [divide them] based on how risky the myeloma is, whereas other cancers will be staged based on how far the cancer has spread," Dr. Shah previously told SurvivorNet.
The three stages of myeloma include the following:
- High risk multiple myeloma when a patient's cells contain missing segments of DNA or switched segments.
- Intermediate risk multiple myeloma when some of these DNA changes are not present but a patient has elevated levels of certain proteins in the blood.
- Low risk multiple myeloma when a patient has none of these changes.
Technically, there is no cure for this disease, but recent advances in medicine have made room for hope especially with early diagnoses.
"This is still considered an incurable disease," Dr. Shah said. "But we want to make sure we make people understand that it's a disease that you can live with not necessarily have to die of."
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