It’s important to say that in the vast majority of cases when you are tired, or have back pain, you do not have cancer. Even so, many of us in the SurvivorNet community have heard the stories about people who go to the doctor for a common problem and have a misdiagnoses after a doctor misses multiple myeloma. It has been reported that former NBC News anchorman Tom Brokaw, who has multiple myeloma, was initially misdiagnosed when his back pain was believed to be arthritis. In some cases patients may just report pain in different parts of their body.
According to SurvivorNet advisor Dr. Nina Shah a hematologist from UCSF, “Multiple myeloma can be hard to diagnose because sometimes the symptoms are ‘non specific.’ It’s common for someone to say ‘You know, I’ve been having this back pain and I’ve always had but somehow, it’s just not going away.’ You may go to your primary doctor with these complaints, and it’s not unreasonable for that doctor to watch and wait or to do a few X rays and maybe not find anything.”
Read MoreThe key here is to keep pushing until you feel 100% comfortable that your symptoms have been explained and taken care of properly.
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