After reviewing how long I have had multiple myeloma, my myeloma special­ist this July asked me if I had ever had a bone scan done. When I said no, he suggested I get one to establish a base­line. After so much treat­ment, what were my bones doing?

As we discussed the impact of my myeloma treat­ments, especially steroids, on the bones, he said to talk to my dentist if it turns out that I have bone density issues. I would …

Several years ago, I got into an argument with an oncologist – not my oncologist – over a significance of my IgG jumping up 500 points from the pre­vi­ous reading. When I expressed great dis­may, he snapped, “Oh, do you have a medical degree and extensive training in hematology? Do you know how to read lab reports better than I do?”

If I had not been so rattled by his attack, I would have retorted, “No, but I have lived in …

High on the front façade of the former high school in our town are two engraved sayings. The one pertinent in my life right now? “New occasions teach new duties.”

I’ll say.

In mid-July, I was diag­nosed with type 2 diabetes. For the record, it runs in my family on both sides. Further, for the record, my personal physician and I had been watching for it. So it was not a surprise when my HbA1C level, a key test for …

Back in April, I wrote about my adventures with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). I had run into a specious HIPAA barrier when the on­col­ogy practice I treat at initially refused to email me my laboratory results, saying HIPAA did not allow emails. Several readers shared comments about their own ex­peri­ences and a few expressed interest in the memo I presented to my oncologist addressing my HIPAA right.

Before I write and before you read another sentence …

HIPAA. We, or at least those of us living in the United States, all know the five-letter acronym even if we can’t tell you what the letters stand for. Passed in 1996, the Health Insurance Porta­bility and Account­ability Act has been with us for more than two decades.

And we all know about HIPAA, even if we don’t know it. Any­time any one of us goes to a hospital or medical center for testing or x-rays or surgery, registration staff …

The idiom “standing on your own two feet” is pretty much uni­ver­sally defined in English as meaning to be strong and independent, able to take care of yourself. As a moti­va­tional adage, it ranks right up there with “pulling yourself up by your boot­straps” and “rugged indi­vid­ualism.”

All well and good, except when you can’t stand on your own two feet. Right now as I write this column, I am weeks away from that act.

In early February, I …

Back in the late fall, I started going to a yoga class one evening a week. I did it in part be­cause I thought it might do me some good and in part be­cause I have known the instructor since she was in high school and dated my younger son. Either reason, yoga was a whole new experience for me.

Breathe in, breathe out.

Let me clarify what kind of yoga class this is. This is not “hot yoga.” …