A former football player was diagnosed with terminal blood cancer.
She says doctors missed the signs of multiple myeloma in her urine.
She was thought to have carpal tunnel when she came to urgent care.
The bubbles were the first thing RobanLampkin noticed. There are small constellations in her urine.
She told Insider that she hadn't seen that before. There were bubbles on the rim.
The doctor thought it might be a sign of a problem with the kidneys, but he didn't think much of it.
Some of the health issues that Lampkin began to develop were hard to dismiss.
There are bones. There are red spots There are swollen feet. A desire to drink. Near constant fatigue, and also fatigue.
It was difficult to speak when her tongue and cheeks became swollen in the fall. She thought she might have been biting her tongue too hard.
There was a lot of pain in the back. She couldn't get out of bed in the morning unless she walked her body up and down.
She didn't feel well. She said she was going to school and working. She said she was doing too much.
She went to the emergency room and urgent care in desperation.
Doctors initially thought Lampkin's hand pain was carpal tunnel.
She said that she did not have carpal tunnel. Millions of people are affected by the carpal tunnel.
After a number of unsuccessful doctor's visits, Lampkin once again woke up in burning hand pain.
She went in screaming and crying to get providers to take her concerns seriously. I had to remember how bad it was.
The clinicians began a week of tests and blood work. They found that Lampkin's kidneys were close to failing.
I was wondering. "I'm not here for my body's organs. I'm here for my tongue and hands.
The doctors went back to the toilet for answers after several more days of tests. After collecting her urine for 24 hours, doctors discovered that the Bence-Jones protein that had been in her toilet for years was a sign of multiple myeloma. She was older than 40.
The signs of her disease were all things that most people wouldn't pay much attention to.
She said that she was too bad that her doctor didn't do the same.
There are less than 2% of all new cancer cases in the US and 34,500 new diagnoses annually. It's a dangerous disease, with a 5-year survival rate of less than 60%, and there are new, investigational cancer therapies, like pricey CAR-T, which show promise in some people with multiple myeloma.
Lampkin, a former lingerie football league player and dancer, says her bones hurt and she's often very tired. She said it was frustrating.
"It was a life lesson, going from working out regularly and feeling like I was really pretty, and fit, and athletic, and I took care of my myself, into five months of chemotherapy, and dealing with the other side effects," she said.
She said that she is getting better at it.
Two years ago, Lampkin received a bone marrow transplant, and her case is considered to be in good health. She is taking a small, maintenance dose of a drug. She says she doesn't like to think about the fact that she might have had less damage if she'd been diagnosed earlier.
She said she was here to take advantage of her remaining time.
She regularly posts about her symptoms and how cancer has changed her outlook on life on her TikTok page.
She said she was just talking her feelings. People feel like it's relevant even if they don't have what I have.
Some women connect with her story of being misdiagnosed. The Myeloma Movement is a non-profit that Lampkin hopes will provide funding to multiple myeloma patients, as well as serve as an educational resource about the disease.
She doesn't know if her grandfather died from the same type of blood cancer that she has.
One uncle says it was multiple myeloma, another uncle says it was leukemia, and my father says he doesn't know. People have to comprehend what it is.
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