When we multiple myeloma sufferers were first diagnosed, we all heard from our doctor something like this: “You have multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer that is incurable but treatable.”

And so the waiting and fretting began.

No matter what type of frontline treatment we chose, the questions that we had were all the same.

Will it work?

How long will it take to see results?

Can I achieve a partial, or a very good partial, or even a complete remission?

These questions began to be answered by the …

I have been on Pomalyst (pomalidomide), plus Kyprolis (carfilzomib) and dexa­meth­a­sone (Decadron), since this past July. It has been an inter­est­ing journey, to say the least.

Like Revlimid (lenalidomide) before it, Pomalyst showered me with lots of side effects, ranging from a bright red rash the first cycle, to peeling face and scalp, to extreme cold chills in the middle of the night, to hands shaking so violently that I could not take a picture and get a crisp image. While some of the side effects pulled back with …

As the 2016 holiday season reaches it peak, all of us here at The Myeloma Beacon would like to thank you, our readers and members of the myeloma community worldwide, for giving us the greatest gift possible: your time. 

We appreciate your coming to The Beacon and reading our articles, letting us know your thoughts about them, and sharing your experiences and helping one another in our discussion forum.

The holiday season is a time of many different traditions. It also is a busy time, when it is easy to lose …

I was busy multi-tasking a couple of days ago. Well, I wasn’t actually busy busy. And maybe multi-tasking is a bit of an overstatement. Anyway, this is what happened:

I was drinking coffee AND watching tele­vision AND surfing the internet. Oh, and I was eating a Christmas sugar cookie that my daughter had just baked. Now if that’s not multi-tasking, I don’t know what is, right?

Let me start over.

At the very moment I was reading the word ‘mean’ in a comment about multiple myeloma statistics, I heard …

Many people think of “It’s a Wonderful Life” as the most archetypal Christ­mas film. For me, however, the best holiday film is “A Christmas Carol,” and not just any version, but the 1951 one starring Alastair Sim.

Sim was in many famous British films from this period, and was quite an actor. His interaction as Scrooge with a boy outside, below his window, on Christmas morning is something that I could watch year after year. In fact, I do. To the inconvenience of my family, I have developed a …

In September 2015, after three months of induction with Revlimid (lena­lidomide), Velcade (bortezomib), and dexamethasone (Decadron), my IgA heavy chain M-spike had fallen from 6.5 g/dL (65 g/L) to zero. My doctor felt that the time was right to get onto the next phase of treatment – a stem cell transplant.

I remember being apprehensive, but actually quite excited at the same time, as this procedure seemed to be the door to a real chance of re­mission and – with luck – many years of …

It's that holiday time of year, and I hope that all readers are planning a happy time, despite the many chal­lenges multiple myeloma can create.

Since I am now a little paranoid after my recent experiences with health issues cropping up un­expectedly and need­ing treat­ment, I am trying to get organized in ad­vance of the holidays this year. I am also trying to keep it simple by not over­doing it, and by not being a perfectionist about every­thing.

Here are a few ideas and tips that may make your …