A Multiple Myeloma Diagnosis at 42 Left an Active Mom of Twins Bedridden — Learn How She Got Back on Her Feet (And Up Mount Kilimanjaro)

However, what was on the other side for Freedman, after many years of working up to the challenge, was a trek up Mount Kilimanjaro.

An Unexpected Diagnosis

Freedman, now 51, had a lot going on in the year leading up to her diagnosis — yet her persistent symptoms still alerted her that something was off.

“In 2015, I graduated from University of Colorado, Leeds, MBA program. I had gone back to get this MBA. I have 8-year-old twins. Everyone thinks I’m kind of crazy for doing this,” she explains.

She began a new job in July of that year, and that’s when she began to notice symptoms. However, like so many survivors, she initially dismissed them.

“I’m starting all these new routines with my family and I am exhausted and I have all these weird symptoms that look totally clear now, but at the time it was just like, oh, there’s all these new things happening,” Freedman explains, noting she was experiencing back pain and feeling sick. While she initially wrote the symptoms off, eventually, she realized something serious could be wrong — and began searching for answers.

Symptoms of multiple myeloma can include:

• Bone pain
• Nausea
• Loss of appetite
• Mental fogginess or confusion
• Tiredness
• Infections
• Weight loss
• Issues with urination

“A cancer like multiple myeloma can sometimes be hard to diagnose — and the reason is because sometimes the symptoms are non-specific,” Dr. Nina Shah, a hematologist at UCSF, told SurvivorNet previously. “It’s very common for someone to say, you know, I’ve been feeling really tired, or … I noticed I had a few more infections last winter than I remember or I had this back pain, and I’ve always had it, but somehow it’s just not going away.”

Dr. Nina Shah explains what symptoms may indicate multiple myeloma.

Advocating for Your Own Health

Freedman says she had to follow her gut a bit to ultimately get the correct diagnosis, simply because the symptoms she was experiencing were so vague.

“My primary doctor — I was new to him — but he understood that I was really afraid and there was something really serious,” she explains. “After being denied for about six weeks, he was able to get the approval for this imaging. I did it on a Monday morning and on Tuesday morning on the way to work, I’ve dropped my kids off, I’m about to pull into the office and he calls and says, ‘it’s bad. It’s really bad.”

What came next was a series of tests to definitively diagnose multiple myeloma and rule out any additional cancers — and then treatment began within a matter of weeks.

“It happened within two weeks actually of those first images, which is pretty fast and pretty amazing for all the people that stepped up to move meetings around and drive me places to get me into treatment right away,” Freedman explains.

“Of course, there’s a million questions, but the questions sort of come as you go because you’re facing the most urgent thing, the most critical thing, which at that time was getting treatment started.”

Multiple Myeloma: The Treatment Path

Freedman and her treatment team took a standard approach to treating her multiple myeloma — which typically consists of an induction therapy phase aimed at reducing the number of cancerous plasma cells in the bone marrow and the abnormal proteins they produce.

While Allison wasn’t treated with this therapy, for some patients, a three drug regiment is used. If patients tolerate treatment well through three to six cycles, phase two of treatment can begin.

What is induction therapy?

“It was three months of induction therapy and because I responded so well, then I did a stem cell transplant in May,” Freedman explains.

Getting Back on Her Feet & Up the Mountain

Freedman says she took about six years to recover and begin feeling like herself again. And while she was very active pre-cancer, she found that one thing in particular helped her to regain some strength after cancer: walking.

“That’s what I did during Covid,” she explains. “I could be outside. I often was with a mask, but I walked and walked and walked … I walked for three years.”

Around 2022, that walking became hiking with friends.

“We were able to do a little bit more,” she explains. “We understood a little bit more about Covid, so I could keep myself safe but still challenge myself.”

Because she lives in Colorado, there was no shortage of trails and mountains to climb in her own state — but after getting involved with a group of fellow survivors, Freedman set her sights on larger goals.

“I saw this opportunity to climb Kilimanjaro and I said, I’m going to challenge myself to do that,” she explains. “…There were 14 of us, five of us were survivors. I signed up in December of 2022 and started fundraising and kicked off my campaign on my 50th birthday in 2023.”

Inspired, Freedman’s younger sister decided to join her on the trek and together, the pair raised $25,000. Across the whole team, they raised $225,000 for multiple myeloma research.

But one doesn’t just go from bedridden to climbing the highest mountain in Africa — and it took some careful planning before Freedman could get back on her feet in any significant way.

“I had this regular [physical therapist] and we were just managing my care with PT and increasing amounts of hiking and climbing,” she explains.

Freedman’s goals were, obviously, quite ambitious — but she said she made it clear to her care team what she wanted out of life and they worked together to make it happen.

Her advice to fellow survivors? “Take one step at a time, get lots of opinions, get lots of information, but also look within yourself and say, what do I want and what do I need?”

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