It’s on the tip of my tongue. “I could remove and reinstall the … uh …” pointing at the spot where the wall and the floor meet, moving my hand side-to-side indicating the length of the wall. “The uh …,” pointing again. “Baseboard! I could remove and reinstall the baseboard to save money when the new carpet is installed.”

This is a rough transcript of a real conversation I had this summer when we were planning to redecorate a room in our house. It is an example of a phenomenon that's become all too common …

I recently had lunch with a group of fellow multiple myeloma patients, during which we touched on the problems we patients have had with memory and cognitive issues.

We all agreed that the treat­ments we have received seem to have affected our states of mind.

For me, that was particularly true after my stem cell trans­plant in January 2010. I was dealing with many aspects of "chemo brain" at the time. These problems included short-term memory loss, slower thinking, and trouble concentrating. Sometimes I would walk into a room to get …

Results from a recent study indicate that many myeloma patients are like­ly to suffer im­paired cog­ni­tive func­tion after their initial multiple mye­lo­ma therapy, and stem cell trans­planta­tion often causes further im­pairment.

Nearly half of the patients in the study had cog­ni­tive im­pair­ment, often referred to as ‘chemo brain,’ after receiving initial anti-myeloma therapy.  Half of the patients experienced further im­pair­ment of cog­ni­tive function at one month and again at three months following autologous (own) stem cell trans­planta­tion.

The study authors explain that the most common signs of cog­ni­tive im­pair­ment were problems with …

It’s been nearly four years since I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, and I am only now experiencing my first significant period without chemo­ther­a­py.

Six weeks ago I came down with a bout of pneumonia, and my medical team decided that I should take a break from two medicines that I had been taking and that interfered with my white and red blood cell pro­duc­tion: Pomalyst (poma­lido­mide, Imnovid) and cyclophosphamide (Cy­tox­an).

Although I continue to take dexamethasone (Decadron) twice a week, the break from Pomalyst and cyclophosphamide should allow …

What was the weather report usually in the spring of 2010 when I was undergoing stem cell transplantation?  It seemed to match my mental state: Snow showers (cold and lonely thoughts); freezing rain (tears unwilling to be shed); fog (brain fog, that is), often interspersed with bright sunshine (grateful to have survived the myeloma).  Typical foothills weather; if you don’t like it, wait 15 minutes, and it will probably change.  That is the way it is in the shadow of the Canadian Rockies.

The treatments that I went through involving chemotherapy drugs …

Say, how’s your brain working these days?

That’s a question for many cancer patients and survivors, but it is particularly one for those multiple myeloma patients who have had at least one stem cell transplant.

Getting a stem cell transplant is pretty intense.

First you start treatment with a cancer drug regimen, or radiation, to reduce the level of myeloma cells in your body and to get your myeloma into the best remission that can be accomplished.

Then you take drugs to make your bone marrow produce more stem cells and “mobilize” …

How do you keep yourself from constantly thinking about this disease?

I realize I'm very fortunate to be healthy (except for the fact I have cancer) and don't have any of the physical issues associated with multiple myeloma that so many others have to deal with.  Consequently, however, the battle for me tends to be mostly psychological.

For me, that's not necessarily a good thing.

I have degrees in electrical engineering and mathematics, and as you might imagine, I'm a geek, I'm a problem solver, and I will obsess on any topic …