bence jones protein

hi can anyone shed some light on what is possibly going on.

in may of this year i developed a very nasty infection where my wisdom tooth was comming through(it has been comming for many years, up untill may had no problems with it), i had some dental work done without the tooth havingto be removed, iv since had another 5 infections with antibiotics- it now seems to be sorted out, how ever 3 weeks ago i came down with what i thought was a flu bug, with nasty night sweats, again a something that iv had for a while, but was no problem untill the bug, i went to the docs, and told her, she found a lymph node under my ear that has been enlarged for more years than i care to remember, she ordered blood tests and a chest xray, blood results were- red and white cells ok. liver and kidney function ok. hormones fine. but she said she found protein in my blood, and my inflammatry markers where raised, she then asked for a urine test for a bence jones protein. so would this be the protein in my blood? or is that caused by the repeated infections? the cold is much better, but i now have slight back ache in the small of my back, slightly like period pain and my right side of lower back hurts a bit, in the kidney area.

im sorry this is so long, but im very confused, and cross with myself for feeling so lazy, and just want to feel better.

Littleone, I am hoping you will see this since your message was sent a few months ago. When I was seeing a neurologist for neuropathy, he did a free light chain survey which turned out to have an abnormally high ratio between Kappa and Lambda - with Lambda being abnormally low. They followed this up with a full bone scan and bone marrow biopsy. The bone scan findings were possible myeloma with lucensies on my skull and ribs, however, the bone marrow biopsy was normal. They did more tests which were all normal except for inflammation. Currently I see the oncologist / hematologist every 3 - 4 months where they run more blood tests to monitor my condition. The inflammation has remained close to the same number, but the Lambda continues to go down causing the ratio between Lambda and Kappa to go up. If you are interested in learning more , you may want to try the myeloma message board where bence jones proteins have been discussed routinely. It seems to have more active members. Some members have myeloma and some MGUS. I hope you see this and let me know how things are going for you now.

Yellowtulips-

Your situation sounds similar to what my dad is going through, so I was wondering if you could shed more light on it. We are so very confused right now, because his internist said he had high levels of bence jones protein and free kappa light chains. He went to an oncologist and they did some tests (not sure what), but they called on the day of his scheduled bone marrow biopsy and said they didn't think it was myeloma and they would not do the test. His light chain level had actually increased and he had most of the symptoms of stage 2-3 myeloma, so we are all wondering why they would not do the test to confirm/deny it.

 Doesn't bence jones automatically mean myeloma? Or can it be present in other conditions? Did you have that? It sounds like you had many of the symptoms but your bone marrow came back clean? Have you learned any more about your condition in the last few months?

 The oncologist has told my dad to come back in a month for retests just to confirm their diagnosis and to go back to his internist and seek referrals to specialists to treat his symptoms.

As you can see, we just don't know what to think. Any help you can offer would be appreciated. And best of luck to you in your treatments as well! Thank you so much for your response!