February is an auspicious month for me. On February 9, 2016, I will celebrate five years of life after my autologous stem cell transplant.

When I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, I was scared. In fact, my oncologist recently told me that he thought I would live for four years after my diagnosis. My type of multiple myeloma is considered high risk because of the chromosomal abnormalities my myeloma cells have (del(17p) and t(4;14)). Only five months after my initial diagnosis, …

From the minute a person is diag­nosed with multiple myeloma, he or she is faced with a never-ending series of decisions. Because there are so many ways to approach treat­ment of the disease, and no consensus among experts on what approach to use, at the end of the day we must make these decisions for our­selves.

As myeloma research advances with the develop­ment of new drugs, new treat­ment combi­na­tions, and new studies on the efficacy of trans­planta­tion, these decisions become …

I have some wonderful news to share. My last PET scan showed no active myeloma anywhere. None in my existing lesions, and the extramedullary tumor in my groin is gone. No new lesions.

Given that I’ve become a nonsecretor over time, tests on my blood and urine don’t help much in tracking my myeloma. My light chains are in the normal range, whether my myeloma is active or not. Only a PET scan and bone marrow biopsy can help my …

I recently returned from a holiday visit to our relatives on the mainland. For those of you unfamiliar with travel to or from Hawaii, the trip to anywhere out of state is LONG. A minimum of five hours of flying is needed to get anywhere. Our flight to Phoenix was six and a half hours this time.

After a lifetime of this kind of travel, you would think I would get used to it. You would be wrong.

It’s the …

What a year 2015 was for the myelomatologist!

The U.S. Food and Drug Admin­istra­tion (FDA) ap­prov­al of three new myeloma drugs, all within the span of a few weeks to­wards the end of the year, had already gen­er­ated great ex­cite­ment in the com­munity.

Then, sev­er­al poten­tial prac­tice-changing pre­sen­ta­tions at the 2015 American Society of He­ma­tol­ogy (ASH) annual meeting put the proverbial icing on the cake to round out a landmark year for myeloma thera­peutics.

This edition of the myeloma quiz …

January 19 is the anniversary of my stem cell trans­plant. I celebrate the “birthday” of my immune system each year. This year was the 9th such celebration, which seems fairly amazing to me.

Before my trans­plant, I had read about a survivor who was hoping to get two or three years of remission from his trans­plant. His account really set my ex­pec­ta­tions. Of course, I now realize that things are not that pre­dict­able with myeloma: some people do better, some …

There are many analogies that have been used to describe being afflicted with cancer. In my March 2015 column, I indicated my preferred analogy is that of chapters in a book.

While recovering from a hiking experience in Scottsdale, Arizona, in early January, another analogy came to mind – that of climbing a mountain.

In late December, my family and I traveled to Scottsdale to attend the Fiesta Bowl to watch Ohio State play Notre Dame. We arrived in …