The majority part of the time, individuals with multiple myeloma can have one-of-a-kind ranges of torment. Among the symptoms of this disease, pain is said to be the most frequent one. This cancer causes great difficulty for patients in their daily lives. Pain is an experience we dread and do not want to carry. It is a painful disease with a pain intensity from moderate to severe level.
Symptoms typically affect the bones. Individuals describe bone pain and can be localized in many regions, e.g., Located in the spine, pelvis, ribs, long bones, or skull. Bone pain is due to the mechanics of osteolysis, which develops during the disease process. It is marked by the depletion of most of the bone mass and the particular growth of osteolytic adjustments. The first person a patient encounters is often an orthopaedist or physiotherapist.
Moreover, neuropathic pain is another common issue patients will face. Such pain occurs because nerve impulses that are carried to the brain are perceived as pain-induced complaints. Hence, the pain is due to damage or disorder of the nervous system. It is a specific type of pain — burning and stabbing. Neuropathic pain is sometimes tricky because it does not respond very well to over-the-counter painkillers.
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A common symptom myeloma patients experience is fatigue, which renders everyday activities nearly impossible for many. It doesn’t matter how much they sleep and rest – they feel tired all over the time. So, this seemingly insignificant symptom is actually a warning that should kick off a trip to the doctor. This is particularly the case for patients who have never experienced excessive fatigue and lethargy before.
However, you might not see the danger right away, as patients with multiple myeloma may also experience sleep disturbances. They then chalk up any feelings of tiredness to them not sleeping well. Sleeping problems can be linked with the chronic and excruciating pain faced by the patients.
Anemia causes feelings of tiredness and sluggishness when performing everyday tasks. The lethargy related to the pale condition is that red blood cells cannot deliver enough oxygen throughout the body. Anemia, in turn, occurs when the bone marrow is infiltrated by these malignant plasma cells, lowering its capacity to create new blood cells. In some cases, the treatment of multiple myeloma causes anemia.
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It is also one of the first signs of multiple myeloma, as these patients will have a higher frequency of different infections early on. Infections in patients with multiple myeloma are usually viral or bacterial. Bacterial infection usually presents with pneumonia and bacteremia. Because of several reasons, patients with untreated or relapsed multiple myeloma are more prone to infection. The reason may be the process called immunoparesis, disruption of the immune system. The illness brings about a condition of immunoparesis because of a lack of antibodies—one of the key features of multiple myeloma.
Crucially, even after being treated with a course of therapy, their susceptibility to infection does not improve. Treatment-associated immunosuppression also predisposes to this complication. So, until cancer is completely cured, patients tend to get sick more often and appear to have different inflammatory diseases.
Thus, patient treatment is required to keep them under observation and give due precautions against recurrent infections to evade complications. As infection is the predominant cause of morbidity and mortality in this cohort, prevention of infection is of utmost importance. The first months following diagnosis and during recurrent treatment are the greatest risk of infection. The best prevention strategies are vaccination against the common pathogens and antimicrobial prophylaxis.
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What other symptoms are an indication of multiple myeloma? Frequent bone fractures. Those who keep ending up with broken bones due to several falls and incidents sustain multiple myeloma. People may be just unfortunate and particularly irresponsible. However, repeated medical treatments due to fractures should raise a red flag over this cancer. Multiple myeloma affects the bones significantly. Cancer may eventually become a bone disease, and this is bad because it breaks the bone’s structure. The bones are weakened, and they are more likely to break.
Excessive bone resorption and inhibition of repair can lead to generalized bone loss. Different forms of bone damage can be observed even in early disease stages. Most newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients have osteolytic changes, specialists have noted. Patients have frequent fractures of bones that make life very difficult. These fractures are painful and make it difficult to move around. Patients also experience spinal cord compression along with the disease.
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A large number of cancers lead to a decrease in body weight. Anyone who has lost weight without trying may have a symptom of cancer, which is often one of the first signs of the disease. Fatigue may spiral up in patients due to weight loss. Cancer causes elevated energy expenditure that leads to weight loss. Other associated symptoms can lead to weight loss, making eating normally difficult. Different issues, including constipation or diarrhea, can emerge from different myeloma. And so you see, appetite loss. Other patients also report changes in food taste, which may contribute to this symptom.
Obesity itself is a known risk factor for cancer and multiple myeloma specifically. Certain investigations support an association between higher BMI or obesity and greater mortality in multiple myeloma. Still, more and quick weight loss is not auspicious. In particular, malnourishment may be serious for ill patients. This is why keeping an ideal body weight and healthy life is important. It is not easy, especially for sick patients, but it is essential and makes a great difference in the treatment process.
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Not only just physical symptoms but possible psychological symptoms must also be addressed when discussing multiple myeloma. Things like this are very common in patients at the last stage after they know they have a life-threatening disease that could, if not treated, shorten their lives. It’s quite common for anxiety disorders to accompany each other in these situations and for depression to be an additional trigger.
Yet patients may exhibit mood disorder symptoms before they are aware they have multiple myeloma. It is relevant when patients have severe distressing somatic symptoms. Sufferers are forced to sacrifice countless activities of daily living as they endure chronic, debilitating pain and fatigue. Having myeloma means a higher care burden for the family, with an increased need for care due to frequent infections, broken bones, or other problems with a patient’s health caused by the disease.
So, this can elevate emotional and social stress to a great degree. Such compromised health also means that some patients are forced to abandon work. Patients can, thus, be very much worn out by ceaseless medical issues, a heavy beat on the psyche. They are frustrated, depressed, and anxious about their health.
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Many kidney issues may develop as a result of multiple myeloma. The pathological mechanism of the disease can lead to organ damage. The kidneys are extremely sensitive to the toxic effects of the cancer. Doctors observe kidney dysfunction in a considerable proportion of patients with multiple myeloma. Typical manifestations that would suggest the impending development of renal failure are not seen in early stage.
When the limit of what the kidneys can filter in the urine is exceeded, alarming symptoms appear. Patients can have urinary issues like reduced urinary output, difficulty, and hematuria.
Malignant plasma cells, which then proliferate, produce monoclonal immunoglobulin that can be found in the serum and urine. Thus, one of the first changes in kidney function that can be detected is via standard laboratory tests.
People with multiple myeloma and renal impairment (RI) presented worse overall survival and a higher risk of early death. Thus, renal injury must quickly be treated with pharmacotherapy-based treatment and effective anti-plasmocyte chemotherapy to minimize nephrotoxic secretion quickly. Renal biopsy can assist in determining treatment and renal prognosis assessment. Better renal function correlates with longer survival.
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Another sign you must pay attention to is certain feelings in different body areas. Those afflicted with multiple myeloma experience loss of sensation in their arms and legs. So, usually, it is neurological symptoms. Many of the multiple myeloma patients we see experience peripheral neuropathy (PN). Neuropathy symptoms often are the most obvious symptom. Furthermore, most patients at the early stages of the disease develop symptoms of neuropathy through numbness of limbs, tingling, signs of autonomic nerve injury, and even minor motor disturbances.
Peripheral sensory deficits are the most frequent complication seen in many patients. Deficits are correlated with pathological factors. Plasma cells are responsible for neurological complications. Inevitably, the compression of bone lesions on nerve roots leads to neurological disorders. But for scientists, the causes of neuropathy remain somewhat nebulous.
Weakness of muscle strength, abnormal sensation, and action of the muscle of the skin are seen. Pain symptoms are often associated with symptoms of numbness and tingling. Such atypical symptoms can cause anxiety for those patients who have yet to receive an appropriate diagnosis.
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Too much calcium can build up in parts of the body due to multiple myeloma. As such, hypercalcemia may be a symptom of the disease. The disease damages the bones, leading to high calcium levels in the blood. The human body is indispensable for naturally occurring minerals like calcium. It is crucial not just for the strength of the bones but also for the proper functioning of the nerves and muscles. But what occurs when there may be excessive calcium within the human physique?
Since this element plays an important role in many physiological processes, the excess of calcium in blood plasma or hypercalcemia can lead to many disease symptoms and health complications. That extra calcium in their blood makes patients feel more fatigued. One may feel nauseated, vomit and a variety of other unpleasant symptoms may follow. Too much calcium makes one thirsty and requires urination. You may also experience irregular heartbeat and headaches.
Blood tests may indicate if there is too much calcium. So, the disease would be an indication for testing for multiple myeloma. Over time, if hypercalcemia is left untreated, there is a risk of damage to the kidneys, such as the formation of kidney stones.
10.Some cancers that affect blood cells can also cause bruising on the legs. A type of cancer that does this is multiple myeloma, where one of the symptoms involves thrombocytopenia, causing a decrease in platelet count in the blood and leading to increased bleeding and bruising. This is why we often see bruises on the body in those with multiple myeloma as part of the anemia. A bruise is the obstruction of blood under the skin, resulting in a purple discoloration.
It can also cause patients to bleed more. So, nose bleeds, or gum bleeds may happen more frequently. Women can also have heavy periods. This is because the cancer cells in the bone marrow may prevent interference with the cells involved in the arrangement and cascade of blood clotting. Multiple myeloma is a blood component-related disease because it is related to the bone marrow. This can lead to dysfunction of some blood functions.
