There is a small private liberal arts college here in the com­munity, not un­usual at all in Ohio as this state used to have the highest con­cen­tra­tion of four-year private colleges in the United States. Like many small private liberal arts colleges built in the nineteenth century, it has a scenic campus, a portion of which also serves as an arboretum. A few years ago, a family donated money to install a labyrinth on one of the expanses of lawn …

I have struggled for a long time to accurately describe the physical feeling I have courtesy of multiple myeloma. I have written about that feeling in this column before, most recently in No­vem­ber 2017. In that column, I named the sensation “none of the above” (NOTA), a not sat­is­fac­tory description. In fact, over the years, it has been far easier to tell medical providers what I do not feel, starting with pain and nausea.

I think I …

Back at the end of 2018, my oncologist Tim and his partners joined a large national cancer group. Tim and com­pany had operated a busy and highly respected private cancer clinic in the Columbus, Ohio metro area for a number of years. The name remains the same on the build­ing and when the receptionist answers the phone, but Big Corporate is here to stay.

The changes with the transition were, at times, startling, ill-conceived, or both. Some changes, how­ever, …

I was recently in an interview (part of the team of interviewers, not the interviewee) and I heard the best answer ever to a dif­fi­cult question. It was de­liv­ered without the can­di­date missing a beat.

I described the situation into which the can­di­date, if chosen, would be placed. It is an external pro­gram, there have been issues outside of our control that have created barriers and obstacles for predecessors in the position, and while there would be strong internal sup­port, …

As humans, we automatically record firsts: our baby’s first steps, our child’s first day of school, our first apartment. In baseball, a fan can tell you where and when a rookie hit his first home run in the majors. We gravitate to­wards firsts.

Lasts are harder. With a handful of exceptions – the last day of school, the last day of work upon retirement – lasts blur together. When was the last time that baby both crawled and walked before giving up …

With my initial diag­nosis of multiple myeloma 14 years in the past, I am an outlier under any definition of the word. And the farther out I am from that initial diag­nosis, the more I baffle my general oncologist, who has been with me since the start, and my myeloma specialist who I see every quarter.

There are many factors that make for this baffling situation.

First, I am 14 years post diag­nosis, a chronological benchmark most myeloma patients …

“Would you like to meet with our palliative care team?”

I didn’t even hesitate. “Yes.”

A meeting was arranged for the next day. I had a choice of a meeting by phone or in person. That was easy: in person, please.

Before you jump to conclusions, this meeting was not for my palliative care. Rather, it was for my Aunt Ginger, who had been in an area hospital for 10 days, not recovering from the surgical repair of a …