For patients who have physical symptoms/problems because of multiple myeloma, I am curious as to how long did it take for treatment to alleviate your physical symptoms of myeloma.
In other words, if multiple myeloma impacted your life where you could not do basic things like walk, go to the bathroom, etc without assistance, how long did it take for you to resume your normal, or close to normal activity, after beginning treatment?
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Re: How long for treatment to reduce physical symptoms?
In my situation, I had broken ribs that were quite painful, I believe it took about 2 or 3 cycles of RVD [Revlimid, Velcade, dexamethasone] and a couple of Zometa infusions before that pain stopped. I can't remember the exact timeline, but I think the pain was even improved after one cycle. I wish you a speedy recovery.
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Joy - Name: Joy
- Who do you know with myeloma?: myself
- When were you/they diagnosed?: May 2013
- Age at diagnosis: 52
Re: How long for treatment to reduce physical symptoms?
Thanks for the words of encouragement! I am glad to hear your pain actually went away. Hoping ours goes away too.
Re: How long for treatment to reduce physical symptoms?
I had a broken arm from the myeloma when I started treatment. The pain began to subside within a couple of weeks of beginning Revlimid, dexamethasone, and Zometa infusions. By 6 weeks after starting treatment I returned to work as a physical therapist. It took about 4 months before my fatigue began to diminish to the point where I felt almost normal.
Good luck with your treatment and the improvement in the symptoms that you are experiencing.
Nancy in Phila
Good luck with your treatment and the improvement in the symptoms that you are experiencing.
Nancy in Phila
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NStewart - Name: Nancy Stewart
- Who do you know with myeloma?: self
- When were you/they diagnosed?: 3/08
- Age at diagnosis: 60
Re: How long for treatment to reduce physical symptoms?
Thanks for sharing Nancy! I consider 6 weeks fast to get back to work!.
Re: How long for treatment to reduce physical symptoms?
If one is on morphine for pain, how do you know if treatment is easing the pain?
AnnieB
AnnieB
Re: How long for treatment to reduce physical symptoms?
Only take the morphine as needed for the pain, you do not have to take it at regular intervals like a prescription for an antibiotic or other medications. If you are not feeling much pain, then cut back on the morphine and over time you may find that you do not need it anymore. I was taking mostly Dilaudid and some Morphine ER. Morphine ER takes some time to build up in the body so the pain relief builds up over the first few pills. Dilaudid is especially fast acting so if I took it when I need some relief quickly. Dilaudid also metabolizes more quickly in the body so it last about 4 hours unlike Morphine ER.
It is unrealistic to expect that opiate drugs will eliminate all pain and I would recommend that you only take enough to keep the pain at a tolerable level. Shortly after I was diagnosed I developed really bad back and rib pain. My doctors said the best thing to get the pain under control was to get the disease under control and they were right. In a just a few weeks after starting Dex and Velcade the back pain was nearly completely gone.
I started taking opiates a few months later for neuropathy pain but I found that opiates helped but were not really that effective for neuropathy pain. The best thing I found for neuropathy pain was simply walking and swimming, and keeping busy to keep my mind of the pain. Distraction is a valid pain management approach and was in the literature my HMO gave me on pain management. For distraction I found that playing games on my XBOX helped a lot, I got really good. I could not do those activities all the time though. For sleeping at night I found that compression socks helped a bit and I took a pain pill just before bed to try and get to sleep as quickly as I could. If I did not manage to get to sleep quickly it could be a long night.
A few months after I stopped Velcade the neuropathy pain subsided enough that I started cutting back on Dilaudid and found that I had become dependent on it. I could go about two days without taking a pill and I started taking it just to deal with the withdraw symptoms. I was able to finally stop Dilaudid when I had my SCT and was taking a lot of nausea medications which helped with the withdraw symptoms.
If you do become dependent on opiates it is nothing to be embarrassed about, it is not uncommon with cancer patients. I talked with my doctor on a plan to get off them when the time was appropriate. Opiate addiction and how to treat it is well understood. In addition to dependency long term use of opiates caused my digestive track to shut down and food stopped moving though me. That was not a lot of fun.
In general based on my experience the less opiates the better, but do not let yourself suffer in agony, take them if you need them. I also highly recommend that you discuss this topic with your doctor and do not take any more that what he has prescribed for you. Opiate tolerance builds up over time and there are long term opiate users who can take doses that would kill the normal person. One of my coworkers husband died in his sleep from an accidental double dose of Oxycontin his was taking for back pain.
It is unrealistic to expect that opiate drugs will eliminate all pain and I would recommend that you only take enough to keep the pain at a tolerable level. Shortly after I was diagnosed I developed really bad back and rib pain. My doctors said the best thing to get the pain under control was to get the disease under control and they were right. In a just a few weeks after starting Dex and Velcade the back pain was nearly completely gone.
I started taking opiates a few months later for neuropathy pain but I found that opiates helped but were not really that effective for neuropathy pain. The best thing I found for neuropathy pain was simply walking and swimming, and keeping busy to keep my mind of the pain. Distraction is a valid pain management approach and was in the literature my HMO gave me on pain management. For distraction I found that playing games on my XBOX helped a lot, I got really good. I could not do those activities all the time though. For sleeping at night I found that compression socks helped a bit and I took a pain pill just before bed to try and get to sleep as quickly as I could. If I did not manage to get to sleep quickly it could be a long night.
A few months after I stopped Velcade the neuropathy pain subsided enough that I started cutting back on Dilaudid and found that I had become dependent on it. I could go about two days without taking a pill and I started taking it just to deal with the withdraw symptoms. I was able to finally stop Dilaudid when I had my SCT and was taking a lot of nausea medications which helped with the withdraw symptoms.
If you do become dependent on opiates it is nothing to be embarrassed about, it is not uncommon with cancer patients. I talked with my doctor on a plan to get off them when the time was appropriate. Opiate addiction and how to treat it is well understood. In addition to dependency long term use of opiates caused my digestive track to shut down and food stopped moving though me. That was not a lot of fun.
In general based on my experience the less opiates the better, but do not let yourself suffer in agony, take them if you need them. I also highly recommend that you discuss this topic with your doctor and do not take any more that what he has prescribed for you. Opiate tolerance builds up over time and there are long term opiate users who can take doses that would kill the normal person. One of my coworkers husband died in his sleep from an accidental double dose of Oxycontin his was taking for back pain.
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Eric Hofacket - Name: Eric H
- When were you/they diagnosed?: 01 April 2011
- Age at diagnosis: 44
Re: How long for treatment to reduce physical symptoms?
Thank you, Eric, great information on opiates.
We will have a discussion with his doctor regarding dialing back on the morphine ER in the future. He is on 2/day, and has morphine for break through pain but has just started treatment.
We will have a discussion with his doctor regarding dialing back on the morphine ER in the future. He is on 2/day, and has morphine for break through pain but has just started treatment.
Re: How long for treatment to reduce physical symptoms?
You don't mention the kind of pain you are having. Is it bone pain from lesions? I was in bad shape unable to walk when I went to the ER and found out I had multiple myeloma. They stuck me in the hospital and gave me radiation on my lesions in my hip, pelvis. In two weeks of treatments I was a new man, walking with no trouble. After initial therapy I was in pain free mode after two cycles.
Have never had to talk any pain meds as I always thought they would lengthen my recovery. Looking back on it I should have taken some when I was at my worst.
Good luck to you, Jerry.
Have never had to talk any pain meds as I always thought they would lengthen my recovery. Looking back on it I should have taken some when I was at my worst.
Good luck to you, Jerry.
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JBarnes - Name: Jerry Barnes
- Who do you know with myeloma?: Self
- When were you/they diagnosed?: Aug 17, 2012
- Age at diagnosis: 54
Re: How long for treatment to reduce physical symptoms?
Yes, the pain is from bone lesions. The rib cage and lower back is where the pain is focused.
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