A study from the Netherlands reported the other day that multiple myeloma patients experience low health-related quality of life.

Further, the study says that quality of life (QOL) worsens as time goes on.

As I read the headline for the short study description published in The Myeloma Beacon (“Quality of Life Decreases After Multiple Myeloma Diagnosis for Many”), I thought, “Oh those Dutch researchers, they’re such kidders.”

Who else has the time to pluck out 150 or so patients …

Each of us has his or her own way of dealing with multiple myeloma and cancer.

I was reminded of this when I read a recent column here at The Myeloma Beacon by Dr. Arnie Goodman.  I hope you all read it.

From following Dr. Goodman’s columns of late, you’d know he hasn’t been in a particularly good way in his personal myeloma battle for some time now.  Right now he’s in a difficult place.

He’s in a position …

I thought I’d tell a little story related to an aspergillus fungal infection that beset me before my first stem cell transplant.

What I’m going to recount here has less to do with the fungal infection than it is a cautionary tale.

In a dark way, this story can be somewhat amusing, but the absurdity only gets humorous in the retelling, not in the actual experience.

The aspergillus came along with something called bronchiolitis obliterans with organizing pneumonia, or BOOP.  …

Let me start out by saying that this is a “dex day” for me, so I’m writing this in the middle of the night.

As we’ve reduced my dose of dexamethasone (Decadron) over time, I don’t awake as early in the night as I used to.  Also, in earlier times, the dex would wake me up, and bing! – I’d be fully awake.  Instantly.

That’s not so any more.  Nowadays, with the lower dose, I’m still tired when the …

My dog, Kodi, died suddenly the other day.  He was 15 years old.

I know, you’re asking, what does that have to do with multiple myeloma?

Let me try to explain.

When I was diagnosed in 2006, and by the time I ended up at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, I was in really bad shape.  Or so they tell me.  So much so, that I’m told that I’m fortunate to be alive today.

When I found myself unexpectedly admitted to …

Say, how’s your brain working these days?

That’s a question for many cancer patients and survivors, but it is particularly one for those multiple myeloma patients who have had at least one stem cell transplant.

Getting a stem cell transplant is pretty intense.

First you start treatment with a cancer drug regimen, or radiation, to reduce the level of myeloma cells in your body and to get your myeloma into the best remission that can be accomplished.

Then you take …

I try to make a point about not talking in my column too much about whatever symp­tom, side effect, or malady is affecting me at any particular time.

But suffice it to say that lately there has been a lot going on with me, and it has brought to the forefront that inevitable discussion about what to do next should my current treat­ment regi­men of Revlimid (lena­lido­mide) and dexamethasone (Decadron) start to fail.

I’ve discussed this prospect at …