Living with Multiple Myeloma

by Bev Dunn

I have always been an active, healthy individual, aside from some osteoarthritis issues. In the Spring of 2018, I began experiencing extreme fatigue and increased thirst. Bloodwork showed that I was anemic. Those were my first indicators that something might be wrong. When reviewing bloodwork, my GP could not figure out why I continued to be anemic, despite taking iron (which did not help). In April that year, my husband and I went on a Hawaiian cruise with some friends (we cruise a lot!), and I have to say it was the only cruise in memory when I felt I slept my days away. I would wake up, go eat, go take ukelele lessons, come back to the room, sleep, maybe go for dinner, and then sleep all night. I was also drinking 3-4 litres of water a day. We returned to Calgary in early May, and my fatigue increased to the point of near collapse in theshoweronMay30,2018.Thatwasafirst,andalarmbellsweregoing offinmyhead

That’sthedaymylifechangedforever.

My husband took me to the ER at Rockyview Hospital where I underwent a myriad of tests. The first-mostshockingresultwasthatIwasinrenalfailure.Laterthatevening,aftermoreextensive bloodwork, the on-call Oncologist gave us the second-most shocking result - I had Multiple Myeloma.IwasadmittedtoRockyviewHospitalforfurthertesting.I’dliketointerjectherethata lotofpeoplearediagnosedwhentheyfallandbadlybreakabone,andthen a diagnosis is sometimes made. Other patients, like me, have vague symptoms that can be attributedtosomethingelse:highcalciumcontentintheblood,renalfailure,anemia.Ihadallof those.AfteraweekinRockyviewHospitalwhereIwastreatedtomorein-depthtesting,including a colonoscopy and a bone marrow biopsy, I was referred immediately to the Tom Baker Cancer Center (TBCC). At that point I attended the Hematology Clinic there and was told in my initial assessmentthatmybonemarrowcontained85%to90%Myelomacells.