Last March, after an unsuccessful three-month period on a clinical trial of a monoclonal antibody, I began a new regimen of Pomalyst (pomalidomide, Imnovid) and the steroid dexamethasone (Decadron).

After a bumpy beginning with some dexamethasone-related side effects, things went very well. My wife and I referred to it as a “honeymoon” interval – we knew it would end, but it was fantastic while it lasted.

I had a great summer. I swam several times a week, and even swam a mile across the Hudson River in an organized swim …

The summer of 2013 is too rapidly coming to an end. The blistering 95-degree days of July have faded away during the first few weeks of August into glorious days in a more temperate 80-degree range. Normally it’s in August when we on the U.S. east coast suffer the dog days of summer, but so far this August has been mild and we even had a few crisp nights. We of course have yet to see what late August and early September will bring.

The cool weather eased our transition from rural …

For six weeks this summer, my wife and I are spend­ing three- to four-day, ex­tend­ed weekends on an idyllic lake 70 miles north of Manhattan.  We have rented a house that sits on a small lake (about three quarters of a mile long and a one quarter of a mile wide). 

When it rains, the lake over­flows the small dam that trans­formed what was a swampy pond into the lake.  The lake then becomes a very small source for one of New York City’s water supply reser­voirs.

Since the water in …

This summer, for the first time in the 40 years that we have lived in New York City, my wife and I have arranged to spend weekends in “the country.”

While we knew many people who regularly went with their children to a cottage in the Catskills or the Berkshires, three to four hours away, I always marveled at the weekenders’ organizational skills. How did they compress work and household management into five days? When did they do the laundry and the grocery shop­ping? Where did they get the emotional skills necessary …

One of the advantages of living in the U.S. north­east is the chance to ex­peri­ence the change of the seasons. This year, the arrival of spring coin­cided with a new medical regimen for me and what has seemed like a rebirth of my own life.

As I described in my April column, this past win­ter was the season of my dis­content. In less than three months, I experienced two bouts of pneu­monia. I was at the hospital at least once a week, and I had near constant gastric distress. I tried …

Last year, I emerged from a three-week hospital stay for a stem cell trans­plant in late March.  On the drive home, I almost wept with happi­ness looking at the flowering cherry trees, forsythia bushes, and tulips. Com­pared with the subdued hues of my hospital room, the colors were so glorious and bright.   Spring had come early, and March had been one of the warmest on record.

This year, it has been cool here in the northeast, and spring has been late and extended.  The cherry trees are not even in full bloom, …

So far, 2013 has been a difficult year for me — innumerable visits to the hospital for infusions, blood tests, PET scans, x-rays, consults, two bouts of pneumonia, and unending stomach distress to cap off the experience.

Using my electronic calendar, I counted 13 visits to the hospital over a five-week period, seven of which were all-day affairs.

But hallelujah for broad spectrum antibiotics, which seemed to start working within hours of taking them. And kudos too to an alert and sympathetic set of doctors and nurse practitioners who listen closely. They …