Velcade is my velocipede.

Velocipedes were all the rage in post-Civil War America. Known also as “boneshakers” for the rough physical treatment these early bicycles gave their riders, they proved tricky to master.

Novelist Louisa May Alcott wrote a velocipede into her novel An Old-Fashioned Girl. A character in the novel, Tom, “whizzed by [on his velocipede], arms and legs going like mad, with the general appearance of a runaway engine.”

With no brakes and only primitive steering at his disposal, Tom soon ended up in the gutter, with a “great cut” that …

Multiple myeloma has a garden variety of symptoms, ranging from bone pain to anemia. The various treatments for myeloma come with a broad assortment of side effects, ranging from neuropathy to neutropenia. Let’s face it: there’s a veritable smorgasbord of myeloma symptoms and side effects to sample every day in Cancerland.

My omnipresent symptom is fatigue. It was a bellwether when I was first diagnosed in 2004 and the canary in the mineshaft this summer when I relapsed.

My fatigue can be a showstopper. My fatigue can be a quiet, polite acquaintance. …

The great American writer E.B. White once began an essay, “I am a man of medium height.”

Those words echo in my head as I begin this introduction to my new column at The Myeloma Beacon. How do I put on paper in so many words who I am?

I am a woman of medium height, 5’8”, more or less, which probably makes me a little taller than E.B.  White was. I’ll be 57 years old come spring. I live in the middle of Ohio, having returned to my hometown in late …