[katherine morgan]

my bone lesions - is myeloma the cause?

by katherine morgan on Mon Jun 27, 2011 5:55 pm

I have been diagnosed with SMM in 2008 after having MGUS since 2003.

It appears that there are 3 lesion in my lower spine( after the 1st & 2nd MRI with and W/o contrast. The doc is not certain that they are myeloma related but feels that they most probably are.

How do I decipher if they are and how do I go about doing this. I have been reading much about everything, but is gets overwhelming for my artist mind.

I am wondering which Myeloma center to go to for a 2nd opinion, although I am very pleased with my Dr. Shachar Peles at the Palm Beach Cancer Center. I feel it is not a ad idea to collect another viewpoint. He has me on Zometa. I have had is once with horrible side effects and I am going for a 2nd treatment this coming Friday the 1st of July. I understand that Ken Anderson, in Boston, Kyle in Mayo in Minn., Barlogie in Arkansas, the Moffitt center, MD Anderson are s few of my choices, but it is hard to make a decision. Can you offer any advice for me at this time? thank you, KM

[joe smith]

Re: my bone lesions - is myeloma the cause?

by joe smith on Tue Jun 28, 2011 8:06 pm

I had bad side effects from the 1st infusion of zometa but it never bothered me after that. Wish you luck!

[sandy]

Re: my bone lesions - is myeloma the cause?

by sandy on Thu Jun 30, 2011 9:44 am

Since you are in Florida you might as well start with Moffitt. They have some great doctors there
-- some who are big on transplant and some who believe transplant is one of our options.
It is so important to see a myeloma specialist. I've been at Moffitt several years now. yes there have been a few glitches but the overall experience has been positive. myeloma is such a unique disease that a regular hemotologist/oncologist might not know all the things that are going on -- although some do keep quite up to date. Even though my test numbers were not that bad, I still discovered I had bone lesions. Check out "Myeloma 101" on the web. It comes from a myeloma group in Texas and explains myeloma at various levels of understanding all in 1 place.

Hope this helps a little

[NStewart]

Re: my bone lesions - is myeloma the cause?

by NStewart on Thu Jun 30, 2011 9:42 pm

There's also Mayo in Florida.

[sandy]

Re: my bone lesions - is myeloma the cause?

by sandy on Fri Jul 01, 2011 9:01 am

Oh, you are right. This is certainly a consideration and it is probably even closer.
nice to have two great choices in Florida