As another summer in the Foothills enfolds, with warm weather, brilliant flowers, sunshine and showers, and the relaxed atmosphere of outdoor living, I can only remember dimly how different the summer of 2009 was for me. I spent most of the summer of 2009 indoors. I was suffering from back pain and feeling very sick after being diagnosed with Stage 3 myeloma in July of that year.

I was very worried about my future. Receiving a cancer diagnosis is not anything anyone would like to have to deal with. And to be reading that myeloma is incurable certainly was not very reassuring for me either.

And yet, somehow, despite the odds, I reached the five-year survival mark last summer, and now, by the grace of God, am scrolling past the next milestone – six years, or 72 months! In myeloma speak, months are the metric for survival. Counting by months was one aspect of the survival statistics for myeloma that really bothered me when I was a newbie. Why could it not be survival in years?

Last year was different from the previous year, both good and not so good. Overall, though, I had a very special year that opened up my eyes and heart to new experiences.

Let’s start with the not-so-good news.

After a treatment-free period of 3.5 years, I had to restart treatment in early October because I had relapsed. I knew that my numbers had been creeping up, so it wasn’t that much of a surprise when my doctor suggested I restart treatment. Since it was a relapse, and because I was so sick at the time of diagnosis six years ago, I am being treated quite cautiously.

I am very grateful that the Revlimid ^[1] (lenalidomide) - dexamethasone ^[2] (Decadron) combination has been work­ing well for me since then. Sure, I had to make some adjustments to my schedule. However, after just ten cycles, my counts are down now to below what many people with smoldering multiple myeloma have to live with.

Despite my having to restart treatment, my husband and I were able to travel a bit, which we both really enjoy. We visited Chicago for a few days, spending time at parks and the wonderful art museum, walking along the shoreline of Lake Michigan (which I had not seen before), and learning about the city’s historical architecture by taking a tour along the river that runs through the city.

I once again lost friends to myeloma this past year. I went to three funerals this spring alone. I am aware that multiple myeloma is still a very dangerous disease and not always ‘treatable’. Or, you could say that all treatments are tried, but they cannot always hold the disease at bay. I still mourn for the friends I lost to this disease, and I think it is an undercurrent in my thinking that propels me to try to help with that.

The real highlights – the really good news of the year – were on the personal side of my life.

Our older daughter got married here in Calgary in mid-September. In previous years, we have had nice autumn weather that stretched out to October, but not last year. The very week before, Calgary was hit by a weather event known now as “Snowtember.” A massive dump of snow broke branches, plummeted daytime temperatures below freezing, and threatened to ruin the outdoor ceremony. Amazingly, by Saturday, the storm was over, the sun was shining brightly, and the wedding went off as planned.

We attended the wedding of one of our nieces in Hartford, Connecticut, which was also a splendid event. It’s great to see the young adults, whom we have known since their infancy, all grown up now, choosing part­ners, and starting lives of their own!

To top it all off, I became a grandmother of twin baby boys, which has put me into a very happy place.

My family has always been very important to me, and to have a new generation coming up is awesome! As you can imagine, having twin babies is a lot of work for the young parents. My husband and I feel very priv­i­leged to be living in the same city and to be able to drop by and help out a bit. Babies grow so fast in their first year, and we want to spend as much time as possible enjoying the grandchildren.

Given the developments over the past year, I have had to drop some activities, or at least juggle quite a bit, to accommodate the time spent with family and being on treatment again. I continue to be busy as ever, but it is a ‘nice kind of busy.’

So it is on a cheerful note that I have passed the six-year mark on my myeloma journey. I hope that, with the help of modern medicine, the next year will also be a very special one.

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The quotation for this month is from Heraclitus of Ephesus (c. 535 – c. 475 BCE), a Greek philosopher, who said: “Time is a game played beautifully by children.”