My plea to healthcare professionals is this: Help patients empower themselves.

The Internet is here, and here to stay. Google, Safari, Yahoo, Bing, Firefox, Internet Explorer, you name it, we are going to turn to the Internet after our doctor’s appointments to look up the things you told us.

When we first receive our myeloma diagnosis, it typically happens during a 20 minute conversation in which we have just been run over by the proverbial bulldozer.  We didn’t hear half …

When my husband Dave was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in June 2008 after a compression fracture at his T8 vertebra, we were thrust into a life crisis of a cancer diagnosis.  However, the more immediate issue was managing Dave’s tremendous and debilitating pain.

Dave had never been in the hospital and was not on any medications at the time of his diagnosis. For him, as for many otherwise healthy adults, he had to “rethink” his views on pain medication. He …

My husband was diagnosed in June 2008 with multiple myeloma at the age of 48 after having severe back pain, which turned out to be a vertebral compression fracture.

The local general oncologist started him on a thalidomide (Thalomid) and dexamethasone (Decadron) regimen in addition to radiation on the lesion on his spine to alleviate the tremendous pain. He could move better after each treatment.

When we began consulting for treatment that included stem cell transplantation, we learned …