Captain Billy,
Thank you for sharing your experience with the rest of us. We want this to just go away…we want to ignore it, but it won’t go away and ignoring it has deadly or painful consequences. Doctors are human. MM is not well known. It took years for me to get diagnosed. My doctor said my blood tests were normal. They weren’t. It was a Rheumatologist who sent me to an Oncologist, not my Primary doctor.

Thank you Captain Billy. I will do just that.

Hi Bridget, be proactive and call the hematologist and ask for an appointment to discus your blood work. This may be important and it's never good to just let it go. My doctor was so bad that I did not get diagnosed for a year and by then I was a step away from death. The longer it goes on the more the myeloma does bad things. Be strong and take control.

Hi Paula, What impresses me the most is how many of us have MM and how different each of us is experiencing the effects. I have hope that the medical profession is doing experimenting with new treatments for MM, especially the Mayo Clinic which is doing new Cart-T studies. We must do the best we can and take comfort in the successes that we have. I am glad that you are with us and sending me encouragement and happy thoughts, We will get through this. 😍

Hi Bridget, More food for thought, I am not your doctor but I care. I don't even know what kind of myeloma you have but it is very important that you know that answer. More thoughts 1. Are you on Medicare. 2. Are you close to Fort Myers. 3. Do they have a large hospital with a cancer center. 4. It may be time to find an oncologist.
I was transported to our hospital 30 miles away and unresponsive, I had lots of pain, fractured ribs and hypercalcemia. They admitted me immediately and flooded me with an IV drip to flush the calcium. They diagnosed multiple myeloma and the next person I saw was this young woman oncologist. My first question was if she would take me on and she said yes. She started me on Velcade and later changed it to Darzaex and Dexamethasone (steroid). I was in the hospital for almost a week and they started looking for a grant for Revlimid ($17,000 a month.) they found one and that helps. My oncologist did a bone marrow biopsy to determine what kind of myeloma I had (light chain IgG lambda MM high risk Duplication of 1g) so she was able to start a treatment plan of once a week blood test and in hospital shot of Darzalex and once a day Revlimid. I responded well to treatment and the myeloma numbers came down dramatically. About the blood test They do 4 tests CBC W/Auto Differetial - Comprehensive metabolic panel, these are the standard blood tests. They send blood to the Mayo Clinic Laboratory in Rochester MN to do the myeloma tests, Immunoglobulin Free Light Chains Serum and Monoclonal Protein Study, Quantitive, Serum. These tests are returned to the oncologist in 2 days and then I go for an appointment to talk about progress and future plans. I am sorry to fill you with so much information but I think that this is the kind of treatment you should expect. I have done a lot of myeloma study as I know what the myeloma can do and I would like to be a step ahead of it. I hope this helps you and I hope you don't think I am crazy. Best wishes.