Welcome to Predra Campbell’s CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. Predra is currently in the hospital and is due to return home on Monday July 13, 2020. Please read about her journey with Myeloma thus far and check back for updates of her progress. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting. Please click Read More...
Life with Myeloma
For many years, I have suffered with back pain, leg pain, numbness, temporary paralysis, etc. before it was discovered that I had a bone disease. Looking back, I even had decreased vision, unable to concentrate and more symptoms so much that I thought I had multiple sclerosis like my mother. I spent a few years going to pain specialists, getting injections, physical therapy, etc. and nothing eased my pain. To compound the pain I was experiencing, I had to have a knee replacement in 2016. So between my whole right leg plus my back I was in pain 24/7 (x-apple-data-detectors://0) and my knee hadn’t had a chance to heal correctly due to me walking and trying to compensate for my back.
In October 2019, on one of the days I woke up and couldn’t walk, I figured I had had enough so I went to Piedmont ER so I could be near the dr who had performed a spinal laminectomy on my back in 2014.
Dr came right away to the ER the next morning to see me and he ordered a CT scan with contrast. (I had already had a CT scan but it was not with contrast ) so he could see the repair he had done to my spine versus what was new going on. When he came to deliver the news he told me he found something that he wasn’t looking for. A bone Disease. I had bony lesions all over my spine! Therefore, he reached out to the Oncologist at Piedmont and they ordered a bone marrow biopsy. After spending a week in the hospital, I was on enough drugs to enable me to walk through the pain. Once home a couple of weeks passed and I was wondering about my results. Well the Piedmont Oncologist said report came back that I had multiple myeloma bone marrow cancer. He also stated that since I had no protein markers in my blood that would show that I have such cancer, that he would refer me to Emory Winship Cancer Center for care.
It took about a month to be seen by Emory but once they started it was all hands on deck. Since I had had it without knowing, I was Stage 2 and they wanted to treat it aggressively (myeloma only has 3 stages). I was put on a regiment of 3 weeks on 1 week off chemo infusion plus chemo pill.
When I started the regimen, I applied for FMLA and got approved (so there would be no penalty for taking off work to get my infusions or to be able to not go to work due to illness from chemo). I would go to work, then go to chemo, then go home to rest depending on the time of day the infusions. I hadn’t even missed a week of time and suddenly I was laid off from a business, that I thought I loved, in February. However, they did give me severance pay and access to Cobra and I thank God for that. Starting in March, due to Covid 19, the medical protocolchanged to all chemo pills until my stem cell transplant date scheduled in June.
I am in the hospital as I type. I was admitted June 27,2020 and received fresh stem cells June 29, 2020. I have health coverage until July 27, 2020 (x-apple-data-detectors://3). I am asking for donation of funds to pay my Cobra premium for a few months so I won’t have to change insurance carriers since my out of pocket deductibles have been met. Cobra payments for 3 months is $5,537.73. Recovery from stem cell transplant is 3 months which will put me into October to be in the best shape possible with a sharp and keen brain to interview and find a job.
Any donations given on Caring Bridge go to Caring Bridge. If you would like to donate to funding the Caring Bridge site you should click on the donate button to do so. If you would like to help Predra directly, please click on the Ways to Help tab above. There you will find links to her MealTrain and GoFundMe. There is also a Planner tab, there you will find any special requests that may arise. I just posted I request there for alkaline water and an easy way to donate...GO TEAM PREDRA!!!
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