03/05/20

Earlier today I sent Dr.Chowdhury an email  because a few things have been going on that I'm starting to get concerned about. Here's the main part of the message:

For a few weeks now I’ve been having trouble with my left knee and left lower back. With the PPs undetectable and the myeloma presumably inactive it seems unlikely that these problems could indicate new bone lesions developing but…

Left knee - it's the joint I have for years thought likely to be first in line for replacement if I ever get that far. There is an erratic tender spot (sometimes I can feel it, sometimes I can’t) if I run a finger down the inner edge of the patella, and another tender spot and slight swollen bump in the hamstring more or less below that. Range of movement is a little less than normal (and than the other leg) and the knee sometimes gives way while walking. I haven’t gone up or down stairs without at least one hand on a rail since this started.

Left lower back - just stiff and sore. Not too far away from that big left hip lesion that started all this off. As for the knee it feels like a muscular / soft tissue problem rather than anything in the bone, whereas with the hip lesion I knew that it was something wrong inside the joint. Anyway, putting this together with the bad knee makes getting out of a chair difficult and slow.

Generally these two things are worse in the morning and to some extent I can “walk them off” during the day (but not the getting up from sitting thing).

A stiff neck (again mainly left side) - to some extent explained by having to do a job or two around the house above head level - something I’ve never found easy. That’s improving now but more slowly than I think it should.

Under normal (and pre-myeloma) circumstances I’d have taken these problems to an osteopath, but that’s impossible under lockdown. My instinct is that they are all muscular / soft tissue and not myeloma-related but I’m starting to wonder whether they should be checked out just in case. What are your thoughts? 

Any "checking out" would mean some sort of imaging and that would require at least one extra hospital visit with the associated coronavirus risk - something to be avoided if possible. We'll see what Dr.Ch has to say about it.

On top of all that, my left big toe (the one that tends to get an involuted nail, although that's OK at the moment) has developed a persistent dull ache that seems to be right in the middle. No external tenderness or obvious inflammation. I'm just hoping that will go away by itself, can't believe it's anything to do with the myeloma.