The 51st annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) started earlier to­day, May 29, and will go through June 2 in Chicago.

Approximately 30,000 physicians and re­searchers from all over the world are ex­pec­ted to attend the five-day meeting to discuss cur­rent re­search in cancer treat­ment and care.

During the meeting, there will be pre­sen­ta­tions about all types of cancer, in­clud­ing many pre­sen­ta­tions focused spe­cif­i­cally on mul­ti­ple myeloma. In fact, more than 90 myeloma-related stud­ies are scheduled …

My husband Daniel, who was diagnosed with smoldering myeloma in 2012, has always had hearing problems. He has small Eu­sta­chian tubes that don’t ad­e­quate­ly drain fluid, his doctors say. His struggling Eu­sta­chian tubes usually bring at least one ear infection per year, and often lead to double ear infections when­ever his allergies get bad, which in the sub­tropical climate of Houston means a lot of the year.

Lately, Daniel has had a terrible time hearing anything. Over the years, there have been …

I knew nothing about multiple myeloma until I’d been diagnosed with it.

I’d never even heard of it. Nobody I knew had ever heard of it. I certainly had never heard of another person who’d been diagnosed with it. I was alone and scared, frantically Googling to find out more.

Over the years, I’ve frequently needed to explain the disease to people and to correct those who confuse myeloma with melanoma. I’m sure this is a common experience for most …

Perhaps the biggest question someone who has been diagnosed with multiple myeloma faces is: Quality of life, or longevity?

As I reflect back on the three years since my diagnosis, I realize this question has factored into almost every decision I have made in dealing with the disease.

When my doctor recommended the “watch and wait” approach shortly after my diagnosis, the quality of life factor outweighed any benefits that might have been obtained by starting induction therapy in the …

I am scheduled to see a myeloma expert at the Mayo Clinic on the first Tuesday in June.

These past several days, I have been busy gathering the requested med­i­cal records, sending the required insurance information, and arrang­ing for the glass slides of my last bone marrow biopsy to be shipped to Min­ne­sota.

As I pull together the various pieces of the trip (including making sure the home front is covered), I am reminded of a line from a wry …

Just when you think you’ve got this myeloma thing figured out, there’s so much to learn all over again.

Look­ing ahead, most of us have an idea about what we’d do when we start running out of FDA-approved drugs to help us: join a clinical trial. And there are literally hundreds of them for multiple myeloma patients.

So no worries, right? Simply pick one from column A, B, or C, and away we go. Hopefully, our doctor can help …

Earlier this winter, while browsing through a book­shop, I came across an an­thol­ogy of poetry called ‘Learn by Heart Poetry - Verse to Enjoy and Cherish for Life,’ compiled by George Davidson. That book included a poem I had heard of, but not completely read before, called ‘Warning’ by Jenny Joseph (1932 - ).

The main theme of the poem is that a woman is wondering how she will live her life when she becomes old. The poem starts out …