Another valued voice of the myeloma community has been lost.

Stephen P. Kramer, author of the Beacon column “Manhattan Tales,” passed away last Friday, August 8, at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. Stephen was 66 years old, and was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in early 2010.

At the time of his diagnosis, Stephen was working as Chief of Staff and Special Counsel to the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Buildings. This position was the culmination of a successful legal career that stretched back across four decades, …

Over the last 10 weeks, I have spent four or five weeks in the hematology/​on­col­o­gy ward of Mt. Sinai hospital here in Manhattan.

I had reached a crisis point in my four-year battle with multiple myeloma.

The original hospitalization was for the installation of a port and admin­is­tra­tion of a treatment consisting of dexamethasone (Decadron), cyclo­phos­pha­mide (Cy­tox­an), etoposide (VP-16), and cisplatin, commonly ab­bre­vi­ated as DCEP, in a last ditch effort to get my myeloma under con­trol.

If the myeloma gets sufficiently under control with DCEP, I will have an­oth­er autologous …

Much to my surprise, I’m finishing up this Manhattan Tale from a uniquely Manhattan Tale vantage point.

I’m sitting in the 11th floor of Mt. Sinai Hospital in the day room, with an IV in each arm, looking east over East Harlem. A week ago, I swam a mile without difficulty in a pool beneath Rockefeller Center. Two weeks ago, my wife and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary with family and friends at a lower Manhattan restaurant.

Life is full of unpredictable change.

This room is providing me with a stunning …

This “Manhattan Tale” is the first that I have written outside of Manhattan.

My wife and I are spending a few days in Washington, D.C., celebrating my brother-in-law’s 70th birthday. He and his wife live in Florida, and they have come up to DC for a chilly week to tour the sites of Washington, my hometown.

Just as the 20-degree cold we had a few nights ago gave a jolt to my brother-in-law and his wife, who are used to the tropical climate of southern Florida, this trip to Washington has given …

The winter solstice occurred this past Saturday.   The temperature rose to the high 60’s (close to 20 Celsius) in Manhattan.  The warm weather melted the ice in Central Park’s ponds and the layer of snow that had blanketed the grass and the paths the previous weekend.

I was sorry to see the snow and ice disappear.   After the snow had first fallen, there were still mallards, geese, and brants swimming on the 106 acre Jacqueline Onassis Reservoir in Central Park.  The reservoir, which is 40 feet deep, had not yet frozen.  However …

I am writing this column on Friday, November 22, as I try to distract myself from a bunch of medical procedures scheduled for the Tuesday before Thanksgiv­ing: a bone marrow biopsy (ouch!), a skeletal scan, and a host of tests in preparation for enrollment in a clinical trial.

This clinical trial (my second) has prompted me to learn yet another new bio­log­ical term – “kinesin spindle protein” (KSP).  KSP, I have learned, is involved in the division of cells, and in particular in the division of multiple myeloma cells.  The drug that …

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 …