“Calibration” is a good engineering word. It means “to check, adjust, or determine by comparison with a standard; to make corrections in.” We use the word quite a lot in both technical and general contexts. It also seems to me to have many applications when dealing with multiple myeloma.

Let me start out with some examples of the use of the word in my work at NASA.

The mission that I am working on is flying four spacecraft in a …

Have you got any plans this February 28th? Throngs of adults will soon don party hats and make champagne toasts in living rooms across the nation. Sur­rounded by black streamers and gold statuettes, they’ll make friendly wagers on who will win the best actor or supporting actress. There’ll be some surprises when nominees’ names are called to the podium that no one thought would win, and there’ll be triumphant cheers when crowd favorites are honored for their popular efforts.

The …

When most people see the phrase “The Three R's,” they automatically think of Reading, 'Riting (writing), and 'Rithmetic (arithmetic), the foun­da­tions of a basic skills-oriented education. Or, for those who are envi­ron­men­tally con­scious, the association might be Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.

At this stage in my life, my Three R's consist of Retirement, Remission, and Revlimid.

One might ask, what does retirement have to do with living with multiple myeloma?

For me, everything.

It was multiple myeloma that led me …

Thanks to Facebook, I have the perfect phrase to describe the current status of my health and my myeloma.

“It’s complicated.”

For the non-Facebook users out there, one of the (many) bits of personal information you can share with your Facebook crowds is the vagaries of your love life. Married, Engaged, In a relationship, In a domestic part­ner­ship, and other phrases are all choices in your personal profile.

And so is “It’s complicated.”

Boy, is it ever.

Right around the …

Late last month, my husband Dilip and I went to the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra along with our older daughter and her husband. On the pro­gram were Sibelius’s powerful Violin Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, the "Pathétique."

All the music was wonderfully played, but I was particularly moved by the "Pathétique," Tchaikovsky’s last work as a musician and composer. He died only nine days after the premiere performance.

It was the fourth part, with its sombre tones and low strings vibrating …

The multiple myeloma community has lost one of its best-known patient voices.

Pat Killingsworth died earlier today, his 60th birthday, of complications stemming from multiple myeloma and the treatments he had received for the disease. He was at Baptist Medical Center in Jacksonville, Florida, in the company of his wife Pattie and other family members.

Pat was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in April, 2007. Soon after his diag­nosis, he began writing regularly online about the disease and his experience with …

Although I was extremely busy with several on­going projects coming to a head, in­clud­ing decid­ing on a topic for this month’s Myeloma Beacon column, my pals insisted that I quit my ‘incessant belly­aching,’ drop every­thing, and go out and have some fun.

Sensitive, level-headed guys, my friends are.

Having no sympathy for my dilemma, they threatened to excommunicate me from the group if didn’t put away my ‘scribbling’, as they had jokingly called my writing through the years.

When it …