When I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, the condition had progressed into the full-blown form of the disease. It was advanced myeloma (stage 3) that had to be treated immediately. As I've described in previous columns, I was in a bad way, with bone damage, lung damage, and biochemistry all over the place. Fortunately, I responded well to the treatment I received, and I am now in remission.

Once I returned to better health and became more knowledgeable about multiple myeloma, I could not help but wonder how life might have been …

Something that has intrigued me since being diagnosed with myeloma myeloma is the rather odd things that some people say to me. I always think that their intentions must be good, but from time to time I have been upset and somewhat irritated by some comments.

One of the first such incidents I can remember is when, hearing of my mis­for­tune, someone asked me, “Have you tried green juices?” I was not really sure what to say; neither "yes" nor "no" seemed an adequate answer. I can­not remember what I said …

Several months after I had my stem cell transplant, my doctor suggested that it would be a good idea to begin maintenance treatment with Rev­limid (lena­lido­mide). He believed that main­te­nance was likely to lead to longer pro­gres­sion-free survival. I remember him saying that, in his experience, main­te­nance therapy often put the myeloma into hiber­nation. That sounded good to me – long-term hiber­nation, I hope.

He also explained to my husband Graham and me that he thought that the main­te­nance therapy might lead to longer over­all survival. At the same time, he said that …

It seems as if in recent years I've spent a lot of my life waiting. It began before I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, and it has continued ever since. I would imagine that this is the sort of waiting that is familiar to many readers of The Myeloma Beacon.

I remember pre-diagnosis, when I felt ill all the time, I was waiting and waiting for some doctor to work out what was wrong with me and help me to get out of the terrible pain I was suffering from.

Then, once I …

As I mentioned in my last column, my husband and I have recently returned to our home in Scotland after having lived in Southeast Asia for many years. It is lovely to be back home, and I really appreciate being able to be outside in the fresh, clean, Scottish air.

One of the very first things which we have done since returning is build a summer house at the top of our garden. This little summer house gives me a place to sit amongst the trees, looking out onto the outstanding …

I find that some days, while I don't exactly forget about multiple myeloma, I can focus on other aspects of life and feel a bit myeloma-free.

Yesterday was not one of those days.

My husband Graham and I have recently moved back home to Scotland from Singapore, where we had been living for the past two years. As I've men­tioned in previous columns, so far all my myeloma treat­ment has been under the care of a great team in Singapore. Without wishing to sound overly dramatic, this team brought me back from …

Ever since I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, I have found that I’ve sort of redefined the feeling of being fortunate.

If you are going to get multiple myeloma, then I have been fortunate. I have had excellent treatment and excellent support. I had a good family, a fine education, a happy marriage, sufficient money, and so on. So, when this unfortunate diagnosis came, I was in a great position to get superb care.

When I was diagnosed, I was in Singapore and fortunate to be treated by a fantastic doctor and …