Deidra: Well, I was actually diagnosed in 2015 which is not that too far away. The way I was diagnosed is that I went into the hospital experiencing chest pains. I thought I was having a heart attack actually. I had the symptoms of being fatigued, having a lot of nausea, having a lot of body aches. It was a combination of things. I thought I was having a flue at one time, I thought I had pulled a muscle in my back at one time.
What really got me to get to go to the hospital and to be admitted to find out what was actually going on was the actual events of thinking I was having a heart attack. Once I got into the emergency room, the doctor said that they were some irregularities in my heart. She wants to send me home but I refused to go home. I said no, I'm going to find out what's going on because I had been in the hospital-- Well, not the hospital but the ER three times prior to going the last time. Each time they sent me home with different diagnosis.
They put me in the hospital and the heart ultrasound found out that I had congested heart failure. I was in the hospital or about three days and they were treating me for the congestive heart failure. They also noticed that there was irregularities in my blood work. My daughter being in medical school at that time talked to my doctor upon discharge and he was telling her about my blood work. She said, "We'll test my mom for multiple myeloma." Well, that time, I did not want to be-- [laughs] fearing I had cancer [chuckles] because I was dealing with a congested heart failure, that was enough.
When I got out, I went to the doctor, they did a bone marrow. That's when they found out that I did have the multiple myeloma.
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