As many of you may already know, February is 'Heart Month,' so I decided to write a bit in my column about blood donations, since that seems to be related to the theme.

The heart is the pump for our blood, and myeloma is one of the three main types of blood cancer, the other two being leukemia and lymphoma.

Back in my pre-myeloma days, I was an occasional blood donor.  Although I only donated about 20 times overall, …

If you watch or run in a marathon, which covers 26 miles (42 km), you may see some runners holding signs that have a finishing time posted on them.  For example, the signs may say ‘2:30,’ ‘3:00,’ or ‘5:00.’ There may be a sign for every 15 minutes of completion time. 

The runners holding these signs are on track to finish in the time displayed on the sign. They are known as ‘pace bunnies.’  Sometimes they even wear rabbit …

This month, I’m writing about a topic that is close to my heart: volunteering.

I started volunteering at the local playschool when my children were pre-schoolers and continued on all through their schooling. 

I learned a lot about ‘not for profit’ organizations through the years as I got involved with other groups.  Back in the ‘90s, we were still using ‘land line’ phones mostly, and being a ‘volunteer coordinator’ involved doing a lot of phoning and leaving a lot of …

An international piano competition, which is held here in Calgary every three years and is near and dear to my heart, took place again at the end of last month. 

As in 2009, I had the chance to attend some of the concerts. My state of mind, however, was much better this time around.

In 2009, I was starting induction chemotherapy and was in a very worried state of mind.  My husband Dilip and I had volunteered with this event …

I recently noticed that one of the most active discussions in the Myeloma Beacon forums is one about experiences with bone marrow biopsies. I haven’t read of anyone who really was neutral to having that procedure done.

Whether it’s done under local anesthetics or with the help of a sedative, it is somewhat dreaded because it helps diagnose, confirm and stage multiple myeloma. However, most of us patients consent to the procedure because of the information it can yield.

When …

What was the weather report usually in the spring of 2010 when I was undergoing stem cell transplantation?  It seemed to match my mental state: Snow showers (cold and lonely thoughts); freezing rain (tears unwilling to be shed); fog (brain fog, that is), often interspersed with bright sunshine (grateful to have survived the myeloma).  Typical foothills weather; if you don’t like it, wait 15 minutes, and it will probably change.  That is the way it is in the shadow of …

My great great grandparents emigrated to Nova Scotia from Scotland in the 1840’s. 

Of course their lives were much more difficult compared to how we live today, but the thing that stands out in my great great grandmother’s own account of her life is how many children she had and how many died during childhood. 

Of her 14 children, seven did not survive to adulthood. All of them died of infec­tious diseases. This cast a pall on her remaining life. My great …