Featured Image Credit: Cover Images
Topics: Cancer, Health, Mental Health
Poppy Bilderbeck
A woman is raising awareness of the symptoms she experienced before being diagnosed with a rare type of blood cancer.
In 2022, a 52-year-old personal trainer and mom-of-two named Sharn was picking up a tile in her driveway which she 'didn't expect it to be heavy' when she hurt her back.
She tried to stretch her back out, but the 'one week of pain' quickly turned into six and then 12 weeks - Sharn left unable to sit down in her car because of the pain 'stabbing' her 'in the back'.
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Sharn powered on anyway but ended up nearly collapsing later that day and despite thinking it may be because she has 'low blood pressure' and hadn't 'eaten enough,' a boss at one of the gyms she worked at ultimately convinced her to go to see a physio.
Sharn explained to the physio she 'couldn’t do any of the exercises anymore because [she] was in real pain' and so she was referred for an MRI.
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An MRI '(magnetic resonance imaging) scan is a painless test that produces very clear images of the organs and structures inside your body,' Cleveland Clinic explains.
It adds: "MRI uses a large magnet, radio waves and a computer to produce these detailed images. It doesn’t use X-rays (radiation)."
Sharn was in so much 'agony' she had to be helped on and off the MRI bed and later that night, she received a call from a specialist informing her the scan had detected an 'abnormality in her bones'.
"They told me I needed to go to the emergency room straightaway," she says. "When my doctor saw the results of the MRI he was shocked I could even walk."
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Sharn was ultimately diagnosed with a type of blood cancer that affects plasma cells in the bone marrow - called multiple myeloma - at the age of 52 in August, 2022.
Sharn recalls: "Everyone was in shock because I am never sick, but this illness affected 75 percent of my bone marrow. I used to joke that I never get sick, but when I do, I get hospitalised."
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Mayo Clinic explains: "Multiple myeloma is a cancer that forms in a type of white blood cell called a plasma cell. Healthy plasma cells help fight infections by making proteins called antibodies. Antibodies find and attack germs.
"In multiple myeloma, cancerous plasma cells build up in bone marrow. The bone marrow is the soft matter inside bones where blood cells are made. In the bone marrow, the cancer cells crowd out healthy blood cells. Rather than make helpful antibodies, the cancer cells make proteins that don't work right."
Symptoms of the cancer include 'bone pain, especially in the spine, chest or hips, nausea, constipation, loss of appetite, mental fogginess or confusion, tiredness, infections, weight loss, weakness, thirst and needing to urinate often'.
"Multiple myeloma is rare, affecting about seven people out of 100,000 people each year," Cleveland Clinic adds.
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Thankfully, 18 months after her initial diagnosis after undergoing treatment, Sharn was declared cancer free.
Now 55, she's since opened up about her experiences, particularly the back pain she initially dismissed, in order to raise awareness and encourage others to get checked if they're concerned.
Sharn's 'back is getting better' and she feels 'good,' getting 'better and better' every day, continuing her personal training too.
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She says: "I’m pain free and I think the bones can only get stronger from here."
The mom jokes the experience has made her 'yell' less at her kids and less of a 'control freak,' with the family seeing 'more friends now' too - her diagnosis having brought 'everyone close'.
Sharn urges others to get checked if you're in any sort of pain, resolving: "Myeloma is common for elderly men and women. And it may be very rare for people in their 50s or 60s, but younger people are getting this cancer.
"If you’ve been feeling pain for over 12 weeks, then you really need to get an MRI. It can be easy for a physio to suggest exercises, or say, ‘Try using walker.’ If you are older, you could simply think, ‘This is my life. I’m old. I’ll use the walker.’
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"But you never know - there might be something else going on. So definitely get checked."
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact the American Cancer Society on 1-800-227-2345 or via their live chat feature, available 24/7 every day of the year.