[Bikeman48088]

Newbie in Michigan

by Bikeman48088 on Sat Nov 28, 2015 4:31 pm

I made a couple of posts already, but thought I should backtrack and do an introduction post.

My journey started this past July 26th. I was up in Charlevoix, Michigan with my wife, an African Fair Trade bead dealer, where she was doing an event. As usual, I would fish local lakes during her shows, since retiring from the corporate world 10 years early. On this trip, I had a sore left hip I thought was due to having walked 10 miles a couple of days earlier, but decided not to let it stop me from heading out to fish the beautifully scenic Charlevoix Lighthouse. So, I grabbed my gear, drove to the park and walked out to the lighthouse.

After fishing for a few hours, it was time to head back to help my wife pack up her booth. As I started to walk back to my car, the pain in my left hip increased tremendously, to the point that I had to use the railing as a crutch to keep weight off of my left leg.

Barely making it back to my minivan, I drove to my wife's event, but couldn't get out of the seat, unable to put any weight on my left leg at all. I texted my wife, telling her my situation, and waited in the car for 2 hours while she packed up.

After the van was loaded, we decided to drive straight back to our home area and local ER. Five hours later, I pulled up to the ER drop off and my wife got me a wheelchair and took me inside.

Once inside, I was taken down for x-rays. An hour later, a teary-eyed PA informed me that I had a large lytic lesion in my left femoral neck that made me an imminent fracture risk and they suspected it was due to multiple myeloma.

I had never heard of multiple myeloma, but from her teary-eyed look, I figured I was goner. The next few days were spent trying to confirm their suspicions and decide how to proceed with my hip. 24 hour urine collection was filled with protein, putting me at Stage 3.

Since they were unable to get a clear picture of how much of my femur was compromised, my surgeon recommended that I be transferred to their main hospital, where a bone tumor specialist would make the final call on what procedure to use on the fly. Luckily, he determined that there was enough good bone intact to do a simple rod and nail repair.

The following day, a hematology fellow came to my hospital bed and performed a bone marrow biopsy. Un­fortu­nately for me, he didn't allow enough time for the lidocaine to diffuse through the bone and into the marrow before drawing his first quick sample. The pain level was an instantaneous 20. Surviving the assault on my left cheek, I had to wait almost 3 weeks before knowing the verdict: high-risk kappa light chain multiple myeloma, 80-90% cellularity.

From thinking I was healthy for walking 5-7 miles per day, eating healthy, and losing almost 30 pounds in 4 months to having Stage 3, high risk multiple myeloma in less than a week. It has been quite a rollercoaster ride.

[Little Monkey]

Re: Newbie in Michigan

by Little Monkey on Sat Nov 28, 2015 9:57 pm

Hi neighbo(u)r to the west, welcome to the forum, but it sucks that you have to be here. Staging for myeloma is a bit different than other cancers, being at stage 3 for myeloma does not mean you are a goner; persons diagnosed at stage three have gone on to live a decade or longer past diagnoses, espcially with the new medications which have come out in the last few years.