I couldn’t quite put my finger on what was bothering me.

I was packed together like sardines with hundreds of other anxious runners near the starting line of a big deal marathon.

Photographers were busy capturing images that they would, in turn, share with the world.

Maybe my angst was just pre-race jitters.

Crowds lined the streets and kids held up hand-made signs to en­cour­age their favorites onward.

Anticipating the sharp report of the starter’s pistol, the athletes steeled themselves …

It’s an early March evening here in Little Rock, Arkansas, and I’m waiting to be called in for my PET scan.

I’m writing this month’s article slowly because some of my close friends back home in Missouri don’t read very fast.

Originally scheduled as a six-month follow-up examination in December, my appointment has been postponed three times. First, there was a change in my new primary doctor’s availability, followed by my lengthy bout with influenza in January, and then …

While living with multiple myeloma, I have learned to expect the unexpected.

In fact, Myelomaville is a land of Great UNexpectations – my sincere apologies to Charles Dickens.

I certainly never expected that my mildly annoying backache, which rather quickly deteriorated into excruciating pain, would usher in a life-altering diagnosis of cancer.

It seemed that I always had something important to do, places to be, schedules to keep, and people to see.  My dance card was perpetually full, but I …

A freezing rain was coming down that mid-January 2009 morning as I arrived at the hospital to continue round number two of induction chemotherapy in my ongoing battle against multiple myeloma.

Although I was feeling the unpleasant side effects and exhaustion of the rather aggressive treatment, I was nonetheless in good spirits.

My fingers were crossed that it would be an uncomplicated, give-some-blood, get-some-chemo, and skedaddle-on-home, kind of day. That was the plan anyway.

Sharing an umbrella, my wife and …

A medley of my local multiple myeloma buddies and I occasionally gather to­geth­er to shoot the breeze over mugs of high-priced coffee and an en­tic­ing as­sort­ment of sweet treats.

Accustomed to dietary restrictions, our klatch has determined that one of those delectable goodies is perfectly suitable for folks like us to consume -- in mod­er­a­tion, of course.

You see, way back when, some astute dessert engineers cleverly in­serted a large zero-calorie hole smack dab in the middle of said treat. …

Sometimes multiple myeloma makes you do strange things.

With a yellow No. 2 pencil and a tablet of Big Chief paper in hand, I began sketching this December’s Myeloma Beacon column while sitting on my covered back porch overlooking a bit of the frosty Ozark woods.

Despite the 30 °F chill and a biting northerly breeze, I was nonetheless comfortable and quite content.

After all, I was within arm’s reach of a mug of steaming hot cocoa laced with cinnamon …

Dear Multiple Myeloma:

Do you remember me?

I am the poor sap that you decided to terrorize during Thanksgiving week of 2008.

Although it was five years ago, I well remember the cool and crisp weather of that late November and how the changing leaves painted a stunningly beautiful backdrop across the forests, the rolling hills, and the sunken hollows of the Ozarks.

I also recall that as my family began to plan our annual Thanksgiving festivities, you brutishly interrupted …