Active man, 54, diagnosed with cancer after unrelated basketball injury revealed shocking symptom
A man had the shock of his life when a sporting-related injury opened the door to a cancerous realisation.
54-year-old Byron Daily was trying keep up with the much younger basketball players at his local court at the time, and upon sustaining a standard finger fracture out on the court, he went home and thought nothing of it.
In a YouTube vlog for The Patient Story channel, the now-healthy Byron explained how his blood cancer journey unfolded and what potential patients should take from it.
Recalling one day back in 2018, he began: "I was out playing basketball with some 20-30-year-olds, which I shouldn't have been doing in the first place, but it so happened that I went to catch a ball; bent my finger back, and this is an injury I was very familiar with, it's happened multiple times in the past but for some reason it took about two weeks and it still didn't heal, which was very unusual.
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"I had a primary care physician who was also very diligent in looking at some of the symptoms and tracking the trends that were taking place in my system."
The first thing he noticed was an 'elevation of protein' in the urine and blood, and so coupled with Byron's stubborn fracture the physician was keen to send him to a specialist.
Due to also experiencing 'some kidney dysfunction', the patient visited both a nephrologist and urologist in order to rule anything out connected to his prostate.
"Then I went to a haematologist and did the biopsy the day after we met," he continued, revealing it took just two days for his multiple myeloma diagnosis to come back from the laboratory.
Apparently, the severity of his situation didn't fully sink in until Byron underwent his first course of chemotherapy.
"That this is something that's life-threatening and I may not have much control over it. You know, it's not the type of cancer where you can actually focus or pinpoint. It's not a solid tumour, this is blood," he said in the video.
The chemo lasted for six months, with one powerful, final blast initiated right before his bone marrow transplant.
Via the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, this particular form of cancer develops in plasma cells inside the bone marrow, whereas healthy cells typically produce antibodies to protect us from infection.
A year on from his diagnosis, Byron went on to share how well he's doing following the life-saving transplant.
"I feel pretty good, I can still go out and run a few laps around the track. I can lift weights," he told the camera. "Most of all, mentally and emotionally I think I'm intact, so that's the most important thing."
He then urged viewers to be their 'best self-advocate' if they're thinking of getting tested.
"You really have to ask questions that may make you feel uncomfortable for your wellbeing. You want to catch whatever it is early. All these diagnoses are key to recovery and so don't be satisfied with a non-answer or 'I don't know', or if you need to see a specialist, you really have to push through that and find a way to be your own best self-advocate."
Dan Seddon