Multiple Myeloma an incurable disease, but I have spent the last 25 years in remission using a blend of conventional oncology and evidence-based nutrition, supplementation, and lifestyle therapies from peer-reviewed studies that your oncologist probably hasn't told you about.
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Multiple Myeloma is often misdiagnosed or completely overlooked. It is common to live with multiple myeloma signs and symptoms for months or even years before receiving an accurate diagnosis of multiple myeloma.
I lived with a pain in my neck for several months before I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma.
The cause of multiple myeloma is unknown. It is possible to live with pre-myeloma stages such as monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) or smoldering multiple myeloma (SMM) for years before you are diagnosed with full multiple myeloma.
While we can reduce the risks of a multiple myeloma diagnosis through evidence-based, non-toxic, non-conventional therapies, it is considered an incurable blood cancer.
The reasons why multiple myeloma signs and symptoms are central to managing your blood cancer are twofold.
The first half of this post will explain how symptoms for the newly diagnosed myeloma patient establish his/her stage and initial therapy plan. The second half of this post establishes how symptoms of the relapsed myeloma patient can inform your therapy plan after your induction therapy.
Multiple Myeloma symptoms refer to those health problems caused by plasma cells (multiple myeloma) growing in your bone marrow before you have received a formal diagnosis of multiple myeloma.
The acronym that oncologists usually use is CRAB symptoms. The acronym C.R.A.B. is used both for myeloma symptoms as well as myeloma diagnostic criteria.
CRAB stands for:
Myeloma Symptoms – Kyphoplasty/Vertebroplasty For Spine Fractures
Myeloma Symptoms- Kidney Damage
Myeloma Symptom, Side Effect- Anemia
Bone Health – Vitamin D3 as Therapy
While CRAB symptoms are the most common health challenges for the newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patient, it is important to learn about possible but less common symptoms as well.
Chemotherapy – Hypersensitivity, Side Effects”
Myeloma – Nerve Pain & Vitamin D3
Myeloma Symptom, Side Effect – Infection
Myeloma – Symptom, Side Effect – Blood Clots
Myeloma – Weight loss as Symptom
Though the multiple myeloma signs and symptoms listed above are the most common symptoms they are certainly not the only possible symptoms experienced by the newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patient.
Having talked about the downside of multiple myeloma symptoms, I need to point out two important positives.
The single greatest achievement of conventional oncology’s, over the past 30 years, in my humble opinion, has been ability to stabilize the newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patient with advanced disease.
Once a person has been diagnosed with multiple myeloma he/she usually begins a regular schedule of diagnostic testing in order to measure the patient’s remission and eventually track his/her first signs and symptoms of a relapse.
Once a person has been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, staged, undergone induction therapy, and reached remission (complete, very good, partial, etc.), he/she can enjoy a remission from months to years. Due to regular diagnostic testing, most patients and their oncologists identify if and when a relapse begins.
Like the newly diagnosed myeloma patient, the relapsing patient may experience
The challenge that the relapsing myeloma patient faces is distinguishing symptoms from treatment-induced side effects. That is to say, you and your oncologist must figure out the cause of your symptoms or side effects.
Is it the multiple myeloma growing once again in your body or is the health problem caused by chemotherapy or radiation?
Because both chemotherapy and radiation cause short, long-term and late stage side effects, it is at this point that I must introduce what Dr. Vincent Rajkumar calls the cure versus control debate in multiple myloma.
Treatment of Myeloma- Cure vs. Control
In short, the conventional oncological approach to treating multiple myeloma is high-dose, aggressive treatments and therefore, the potentially “curative approach.” The current definition of a “functional cure” in multiple myeloma is a remission of at least seven years.
The PeopleBeatingCancer Multiple Myeloma Cancer Coaching Program seeks the control approach. In my research and personal experience, myeloma patients achieve a higher quality-of-life as well as a longer length of life by pursuing a low-dose approach to treatment.
David Emerson
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