[jimca]

Do my symptoms & lab results suggest multiple myeloma?

by jimca on Mon Nov 09, 2015 3:26 am

Hello all, hoping everyone had a great weekend.

I'm 36 and my health hasn't been the best for quite some time. My first flare up happened about 4 years ago where I had an episode of difficulty breathing, and feeling faint by just walking. I had a lot of digestion issues at that time. I remember getting a strange feeling right below my rib cage as well. Just really weird stuff that I battled, and ended up in the ER several times. Was treated at various VA hospitals who thought I was "normal" and perhaps suffering from depression or anxiety.

Any who I get lightheaded and can't seem to exercise like I would like to. Just walking at times can be tough which is odd because I was a gym rat before all this happened. The weird thing is I went from feeling I was about to die, to feeling normal for a few years. Fast forward to current day and I have been having the same issues again, but this time my labs have shown albumin in urine, of 1.44 mg/dl. My albumin plasma specimen is 5.1 g/dL as well. I'm not sure what else to look for in my labs, but all I know is protein in urine is not a good sign.

I'm still in the diagnosis phase but I was wondering what you guys get when things flare up so that I can kind of compare it to what I have. I get fatigued easily, I feel it's hard to breathe although my lung function is apparently "normal" every time I go to the doc. I also get a lot of twitching it seems (eyelid starts twitching) I also get muscle aches. Seems like my skin is hypersensitive at times, getting urticarial a lot, and I don't remember it being like this before I started having health issues. I also started getting aches in my lower back but I'm not too sure if that is related, as I did do some lifting which could of caused some soreness. I noticed when I stand sometimes my heart seems to beat heavy. I get a lot of muscle tension as well.

I'm sorry for coming here since I have not been diagnosed but when checking my symptoms and labs it would appear that this is something that I could very well have.

I can post my labs if someone is willing to help? Thanks for listening any ways, I've just been a wreck as of late ... not knowing is really tough and I have been battling this for about 6 years or so. Any how thanks for listening and hope everyone had a good day today.

[Multibilly]

Re: Do my symptoms & lab results suggest multiple myeloma?

by Multibilly on Mon Nov 09, 2015 7:07 pm

Hi Jimca,

Welcome to the forum.

I'm by no means a doc. But while some of these symptoms do occur with multiple myeloma, it doesn't really sound like a classic case of multiple myeloma - but it's really hard to say since multiple myeloma presents in lots of different ways. Also, lot's of things can cause many of your symptoms including various autoimmune disease, etc.

What kind of a doctor are you working with?

If you look at your comprehensive metabolic panel, is either your total serum protein or globulin level elevated and out of range? Is either your serum calcium or creatinine level elevated?

If you are feeling fatigued, have you looked at your hemoglobin (Hgb) and red blood cell (RBC) on your CBC lab test? Are either of these low?

If you want to eliminate various monoclonal gammopathies such as multiple myeloma from the possible list of diseases or disorders you might be dealing with, you should ask for a serum immunofixaiton test and a free light chain assay test the next time you get blood work. These are pretty cheap lab tests to do and will quickly tell you if any other follow up is required wrt diseases such as multiple myeloma.