I broke my spine in two places and shrank by five inches – doctors told me it was back pain but I have incurable cancer

A WOMAN who broke her spine in two places and shrank by five inches was told by doctors her back pain was actually an incurable cancer.

Mum-of-two Karen Smith now wants others to spot the symptoms of the rare disease to stop late diagnoses.

BPMKaren Smith has a rare form of blood cancer[/caption]

Karen, 55, was diagnosed with myeloma in January 2020 – two months after a fall at work left her struggling to walk and having to sleep propped up in a chair, according to StokeonTrentLive.

The Newcastle mum said she repeatedly visited her GP at Higherland Surgery in utter agony and was told she had “mechanical back pain” from her job in a pharmacy.

The keen weightlifter and gym-goer was sent away with a referral for physiotherapy and was advised to take over-the-counter painkillers – but neither improved her condition.

Karen became so desperate she paid to see a private spinal consultant who ordered CT and MRI scans. Two days later, she was diagnosed with the rare cancer which kills 3,000 people each year in the UK.

Karen has now teamed up with Myeloma UK to raise awareness about the disease and the impact of a delayed diagnosis on patients’ quality of life.

Myeloma is the third most common type of blood cancer and the 19th most common canner.

It is notoriously difficult to detect because symptoms such as pain, easily broken bones, fatigue and recurring infection are often linked to general ageing and other conditions.

Karen said: “I felt I was getting worse with the pain and didn’t seem to be standing as upright as normal.

“I was back and forth to the GP; over-the-counter painkillers weren’t making any difference. I was 5ft 5in and I’m now 5ft but no-one noticed.

“I was referred to a physiotherapist as initially my GP suspected mechanical back pain associated with my pharmacy job, but physiotherapy exacerbated the problem.

“I had uncontrollable spasms and couldn’t lie down in bed. I was sleeping propped up in a chair as best I could manage to try to grasp a few hours of sleep.

“I just knew that something wasn’t right and it was getting worse. The pain would come on randomly and take my breath away.

“It was like someone tightening a rope around my ribs and sticking pins in me at the same time.”

Despite the pain she was in, Karen was not sent for an X-ray by her GP surgery and told to keep on taking painkillers.

By the time she was diagnosed, she was found to have two broken vertrbrae and a compressed disc and was forced to wear a back brace for four months and use a walker.

“I wasn’t happy with my GP at all and I felt like I was being dismissed. I was asking for help and getting nowhere. How many times do you have to go back before it raises a red flag?” the grandmother-of-two said.

“I had fallen from height onto concrete – but in fact that fall at work saved my life.

“The spinal consultant couldn’t believe I was able to stand. I was admitted to the Royal Stoke University Hospital for eight days, had a plethora of tests, and two days later I started treatment.

“I was discharged home in a wheelchair and wore a back brace for four months.

“I was determined to walk again and I set little targets for myself, like just getting to the bottom of the stairs.

“It took me two months to be able to walk upstairs on my own because I was so worried about falling down.”

Karen underwent chemo and a stem cell transport in March 2021, which she credits with allowing her to walk and drive again.

Life seemed to have returned to normal for the 55-year-old until the end of last year when she felt a sharp pain and heard a loud crack on the left side of her jaw while having lunch.

Tests revealed the cancer had returned, causing her jaw to fracture. She was put on five session of chemo in January this year and is currently undergoing private treatment at a Nuffield hospital in Newcastle and Wolverhampton twice a week.

Treatment has proved highly effective in suppressing the disease, which is incurable, and can lead to patients living beyond five or ten years after their diagnosis.

Opening up about her struggles, Karen said: “I had never heard of myeloma and came back with lots of information when I was diagnosed.

“It is incurable but it is treatable – and I have responded well to treatment and thankfully feel quite well in myself.

“I was angry when I was first diagnosed but I gave myself a talking to and I haven’t had many down days. I haven’t cried much, even when I was diagnosed.

“I’m living my normal life now, just at a slightly slower pace. You can’t be the same person that you were, but you just have to adapt and change your mindset. Life is good.

“I want people to know about myeloma and spot the signs. If anything doesn’t feel right, please get it checked.

“We need more funding and awareness because it feels like myeloma is a forgotten cancer.”

Myeloma UK Acting Director of Research and Patient Advocacy, Shelagh McKinlay, said: “We cannot allow the lives of patients like Karen to be diminished by avoidable delays in diagnosis.

“The quality of life of people living with myeloma has never been more important, with advances in treatment meaning that patients are now able to live longer than ever before.”

Higherland Surgery said it “cannot comment on individual cases” but added: “We believe the surgery made the appropriate referral to a specialist service in this instance. We have not received a complaint from the patient.”