I have a neurological disease called Olivopontocerrabellar Degeneration. It's slow moving and totally easy to live with. I just have to be really careful because I have these spectacular falls. Luckily I'm getting my service dog this summer so I can walk with him and hopefully eliminate any falls.
Anyway, my neurologist always did bloodwork and at one visit he told me my blood wasn't happy. He sent me to an oncologist hemotologist which shocked me. She asked me if I knew why I was there and I told her the doctor had concerns about my blood. Then she told me it was suspected that I had multiple myeloma, a very serious blood cancer. Hmm. My day suddenly got interesting.
I then started on a battery of tests, bloodwork, bone marrow biopsy, full body x-ray, etc. The results came back. I had smouldering myeloma. So I began reading about the disease and the first thing I read was an out dated website, so I figured I only had about four years to live. It was upsetting, I didn't want to leave my son, but it was also liberating. When you think you're going to die, you live life differently. You focus more on what makes you happy rather than sweating the small stuff. I did find out that this disease is really not a death sentence anymore. But I was about to enter a world of pain.
Six weeks after my diagnosis, I bent down to put a leash on my dog and my back exploded. I figured it was a kidney stone so my son helped me to bed and I didn't seek help untl the next day. Was I ever in pain, I cried just trying to get into the car. When I got to the ER I told them I thought I had a kidney stone. The were busy so I had to sit in the waiting room for a very long time. When the doctor saw me she told me tthat it was no kidney stone and sent me to x-ray. I'll never forget the look on her face when she told me the results, I had a spinal tumor that fractured my spine.
Scary.