Hello Liz
No I didn't have any plasmacytoma, I became progressively more anaemic as the mm cells took over my bone marrow and stopped the normal blood cell production. When I became too anaemic to give blood at the donor session I was sent for tests. That was October 10. I was diagnosed with mm in February 11, fortunately for me i have no obvious plasmacytomas, bone or kidney involvement. I was on chemo for 4 months, stem cell retrieval in July and high dose chemo and stem cell rescue in august. Now I'm 18 weeks post procedure and in complete remission, not back to work yet but slowly recovering.
It is hard for everyone to come to terms with such big life changes as this and the stresses and strains on patients and families are difficult to deal with, especially when you have been apparently fit and the emotional and physical effects of the drugs on top of the diagnosis knock the stuffing out of the best of us. I don't know about anyone else but i hate the sheer sadness of the alteration to my lifestyle and future plans (I'm 2 years away from retiring from nursing) and was looking forward to escaping from hospitals, only to find myself on the other side! As I said earlier ask away whatever and whenever you need.
Helen