As Mother’s Day ap­proaches, I thought I would share with you the story of a very special woman in my life who con­tinues to show me how to live with myeloma – my mom.

My mom doesn’t have myeloma, but she has had a lifetime of dealing with crip­pling disease both personally and as a care­giver to my dad.

My mom has had a tough life. Born into a family of alcoholics, her child­hood was filled with neglect. She was …

A hard-as-nails buddy once asked me: ‘How can you be so brave going through this myeloma crud?’

I’m brave? Not hardly. He wasn’t there on this day:

It was in the spring six years ago that I was having trouble getting com­fort­able in the well-worn recliner in the tiny one-bedroom apartment that I had rented in Little Rock.

As I leaned over to grab something off of an end table, I felt a ‘crunch’ in my side. I moaned and …

My primary audience for these columns is the myeloma pa­tients and their care­givers who frequent The Myeloma Beacon. But, as I am sure is the case with my fel­low col­um­nists, I share my column with friends and rela­tives by email and by post­ing links on social media. For that reason, I try to make the subjects – although always myeloma-related – somewhat uni­versal.

At the risk of alienating my non-myeloma audience, this month I write about a very specific myeloma-related issue: diarrhea. …

I have exciting news, everyone! I’m old!

I turned 40 earlier this month. When I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma at age 30, I often wondered if I’d ever see 40.

In fact, during the first few scary years after my diagnosis, I pretty much assumed I wouldn’t.

Forty seemed so old and far away. When you’re diagnosed with a fatal disease at age 30, you don’t really worry about getting old. You don’t plan for anything that’s 10 years …

I was recently talking with a friend about her child’s reading curriculum when I was reminded of a short story, The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien. It is set amongst a platoon of American soldiers in the Vietnam War, and it chronicles the experiences of Lt. Jimmy Cross, their platoon leader. Through the story, he carries physical reminders of home with him, until one day he parts with them, knowing that he must do so in order to survive the war. …

In my March column, I wrote about start­ing a new chapter in my multiple myeloma book – maintenance therapy.

I started out with 10 mg of Revlimid (lenalidomide) per day in a 21-day cycle, without dexa­metha­sone (Decadron). I very much welcomed the elimination of dexa­metha­sone, as I experienced wild mood swings and serious insomnia during induction therapy. The fact that the neurop­athy I suffered from Revlimid during in­duction therapy (15 mg per day, 21-day cycle) …

Initial results of a German clinical trial con­firm pre­vi­ous find­ings that sub­cu­ta­ne­ous (under-the-skin) injections of Velcade for the treat­ment of myeloma lead to fewer side effects – but similar over­all response rates – com­pared to intra­ve­nous (IV) infusions of the drug.

The trial results also indicate, however, that IV adminis­tra­tion of Velcade may lead to deeper treat­ment responses when patients are given the drug for a limited number of treat­ment cycles.

The German trial is notable not just because it is the …