Myeloma Dawg

Hello: My name is Bill and I have Myeloma and I live in Florida. I started this blog mainly as a means of sharing information of my illness with others in the hopes that they can share information with me. As you probably can tell from the use of the word "dawg" that I graduated from the University of Georgia, albeit back in 1963.

Up until I was diagnosed with myeloma, my health was excellent, if anything it was super-excellent.

The very first symptom came last Thanksgiving (2008) when I felt tired after walking with my granddaughters in the north Georgia mountains. I just assumed I was out-of-shape and needed to start exercising. The tired feeling went away quickly and that was that. In January, my wife and I went on cruise and there were some times that I stepped on her feet while dancing; this I just assumed was just due to the ship slightly rocking. In February, I began having slight balance problems and assumed that I needed a better pair of shoes. Basically, it felt that I was always walking on a mattress; just a soft cushy feeling. Also I noticed that throughout January and early February, my legs were progressively becoming weaker.

On February 23, on impulse, I visited my family physician and discussed my gait/leg weakness problem with her. She, at that point, ordered a bunch of blood, urine, and x-rays. The testing went on for several weeks; but there were no true delays; a test would be run; the results would come back a few days later; and some additional tests would be run. On March 16, she notified me that I had abnormal amounts of protein in my urine and that my Igg level was high (about 3750 mg/dl) and that she recommended that I schedule an appointment with a oncologist/hematologist (O/H). This was done: and I had my first appointment was four days later on March 23, where additional blood and urine testing was done, as O/H suspected myeloma. The quickest way to confirm myeloma, however, would be to do a bone marrow biopsy. Again this was quickly done, and the test was done the following Wednesday, March 25. On Monday evening (March 30), the O/H called me to tell that there were 30-35 percent cancer cells in the marrow and myeloma was confirmed.

From start to finish, it only took 5 weeks from my initial doctor visit to diagnosis. None of the testing was difficult or troublesome. I had heard that a bone marrow biopsy was painful; mine was not; and after the procedure I went on a mini-vacation to the beach.