April Nelson's Archive

April Nelson, who lives in her hometown of Delaware, Ohio, writes a monthly column for The Myeloma Beacon. After being diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2004 at the age of 48, April received high-dose thalidomide and tandem stem cell transplants, attaining a near complete remission. She relapsed in 2012 after five maintenance therapy-free years. A retired attorney, April is now a staff mediator for the Delaware County Juvenile Court and a community volunteer, sitting on the city’s Civil Service Commission and volunteering at the local monthly free legal clinic. April is married to Warren Hyer; she has two adult children, a daughter-in-law, two adult stepchildren, and one new granddaughter. April is a voracious reader and an avid baker.

April Nelson has written 66 article(s) .

[ by | Feb 21, 2017 1:35 pm | 12 Comments ]
Letters From Cancerland: Locomotives

I was recently grousing about the individualized nature of multiple mye­lo­ma. In this modern day, we have some cancers that are curable, and many that are so predictable in their course that treatment is standardized.

Multiple myeloma is not either of those types of cancers. What works for you will not work for me and vice versa. Some of you started with MGUS or smoldering myeloma. Some of you may never advance beyond that. Others, and I am in …

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[ by | Jan 24, 2017 12:44 pm | 16 Comments ]
Letters From Cancerland: Puzzles

Santa left some small, cheap jigsaw puzzles in our stockings. They are flimsy and garishly colored. Last week, we cleared off a coffee table, cut one box open, and spread out the pieces.

Jigsaw puzzles can be huge time sinks, as much as any electronic en­ter­tain­ment. This particular puzzle is of a carousel horse, its colors tinted towards the Fauvism spectrum. It has 660 pieces, over 600 of which look identical to the casual eye. No wonder an hour can …

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[ by | Dec 28, 2016 1:24 pm | 15 Comments ]
Letters From Cancerland: It’s Not Easy Being Green

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 …

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[ by | Sep 10, 2016 3:48 pm | 17 Comments ]
Letters From Cancerland: Still

I have been silent for a couple of months, dealing with sea changes to my treat­ment regimen. These changes have thrown some major stumbling blocks into my life, and I am not yet ready to write about that increas­ingly touchy topic.

Fortunately, an intriguing and intense conversation with my good friend and sister-in-law Margaret provided me with a conundrum to puzzle over and this month’s column topic to boot.

I don’t have any answers, but readers might.

Margaret and I …

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[ by | Jun 21, 2016 1:23 pm | 13 Comments ]
Letters From Cancerland: A Different N of 1

“You’ll be an N of 1,” said Tim, my oncologist.

I winced inside. My oncologist had no way of knowing it, but he had inadvertently evoked a Beacon column written by Arnie Goodman, who died in 2014.

Arnie Goodman was a favorite of mine because he didn’t mince words about his condition, which grew increasingly dire. In his column, “N of 1,” Arnie explained that he and his oncologist were trying a new drug,

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[ by | May 18, 2016 4:47 pm | 14 Comments ]
Letters From Cancerland: Winding Down

Call me Tik-Tok.

Tik-Tok was the mechanical man created by L. Frank Baum and intro­duced in Ozma of Oz. While he appears in other Oz books, it is in his debut that the reader gains an appreciation for Tik-Tok’s mechanical works, including his apparently tireless activities.

There was one catch with Tik-Tok. As a mechanical man, he had to be wound: under his left arm for thinking, under his right arm for speech, and in the center of his back …

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[ by | Apr 20, 2016 4:51 am | 11 Comments ]
Letters From Cancerland: Big Books

The infusion regimen I follow for Kyprolis (carfilzomib) is two con­secu­tive days a week, three con­secu­tive weeks in a round, rest one week, repeat. Each session lasts two hours, more or less, so in any com­plete round of treatment I spend 12 or more hours of en­forced down­time, sitting in a chair while chemicals drip into my body.

What to do, what to do?

I don’t carry a tablet. I don’t have a smart phone, just a way …

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