This is a special edition of "Arnie's Rebounding World." Many Beacon readers know that Arnie Goodman, who authored this column for more than three years, passed away last July. This edition of the column is written by Arnie's wife Merle, who has generously offered to share with the Beacon community the "Final Chapter" of Arnie's story.

I told Arnie that, when he died, I would write his final column.

It has taken me longer than I expected, however, as it was not as easy as I thought it would be.

I wanted …

The myeloma community has lost a courageous and inspiring soul.

Long-time Beacon columnist Dr. Arnold Goodman, known to most of his readers as just “Arnie,” passed away yesterday in the company of his family at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida.

Arnie had been a physician for two decades, practicing as an ear, nose, and throat specialist, prior to his diagnosis with multiple myeloma in the spring of 2006. He continued his medical practice for three years after his diagnosis, eventually deciding to stop work due to the physical demands of …

It’s been said over and over that multiple myeloma encompasses a wide spectrum of diseases.

It includes people with the precursor diseases monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) and smoldering multiple myeloma. It also includes newly diagnosed patients with active myeloma, those approaching their first stem cell transplant, some patients who are fairly stable on maintenance therapy, and those progressing after various treatments.

I think the different phases of the disease are reflected well by the diverse perspectives of the contributors to The Myeloma Beacon. I, too, have writ­ten over the years …

Shortly after starting my new compassionate use protocol with elo­tuzu­mab, which I described in my previous column, I began to have elevated levels of my liver enzymes.

It initially was unclear whether this was occurring due to a reaction to the drug, a tumor in the liver, or other possible causes.

After several tests, including an MRI, a PET scan, and blood workup, the source of the problem was found to be unrelated to my new treatment. It was instead due to a condition I had developed called hemochromatosis, …

In statistics, N refers to the number of subjects in the sample, or the sam­ple size. In a scientific study such as a clinical trial, N is the number of patients en­rolled in each arm of the study. Generally speaking, the larger the N, the stronger the validity of the trial.

From a statistical standpoint, an N of 1 would have no real significance. In fact, we were always taught in medical school that an N of 1 is an anec­dote, not nec­es­sar­i­ly worthy of consideration, and often dismissed.

In real life, …

Having recently been discharged from the hospital after my third cycle of high-dose chemo, I was at the outpatient clinic at the hospital recently on a Saturday for lab work and a checkup.

The medical tech who was drawing my blood was a woman I have come to know.  She has seen me walking in, dragging myself in, and being wheeled in through years of treatment.  She has seen me through two stem cell transplants, a donor transplant, multiple rounds of chemo, and countless rounds of myeloma treatments.

While accessing my port, …

Hardly a day goes by when I am not inundated with the news of incredible advances that have been made in the treatment of multiple myeloma.

Survival rates have gone from three years to five years and now to eight to ten years.

Five new drugs have been approved for the treatment of myeloma over the last decade.  A couple of dozen more are in various stages of clinical trials.

We are tantalized by the promises of “breakthroughs” just on the horizon.

Immunotherapy hopes to harness the body’s own immune system to …