A national news magazine recently had a cover story about potential new cancer immunotherapies. The article also includes a discussion about clinical trials. While I found the article informative, I thought that it focused too much on the cost and exclusiveness of clinical trials and the fact that such trials are not available to most cancer patients.

What gave me the most food for thought from this article was the opening sen­tence: "Dates are important to a person who knows he is dying from cancer." The article suggests that dates from such …

In my February column, I shared my con­cern that my upcoming three-month checkup could reveal that I relapsed. This was due to the fact that the blood test results at my checkup in December showed a faint-to-moderate sign of a monoclonal protein – the first time this had happened since my autologous stem cell transplant in early June of 2014.

I consider myself an optimistic individual. But in the days leading up to my three-month checkups, a pessimistic side of me surfaces as I worry that something new will be seen in …

When most people see the phrase “The Three R's,” they automatically think of Reading, 'Riting (writing), and 'Rithmetic (arithmetic), the foun­da­tions of a basic skills-oriented education. Or, for those who are envi­ron­men­tally con­scious, the association might be Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.

At this stage in my life, my Three R's consist of Retirement, Remission, and Revlimid.

One might ask, what does retirement have to do with living with multiple myeloma?

For me, everything.

It was multiple myeloma that led me to retire at the end of last year at the young age …

There are many analogies that have been used to describe being afflicted with cancer. In my March 2015 column, I indicated my preferred analogy is that of chapters in a book.

While recovering from a hiking experience in Scottsdale, Arizona, in early January, another analogy came to mind – that of climbing a mountain.

In late December, my family and I traveled to Scottsdale to attend the Fiesta Bowl to watch Ohio State play Notre Dame. We arrived in Scottsdale on Wednesday, which gave us almost two full days to fill …

Patience is not one of my virtues.

I was reminded of this as I began my Christmas shopping five days earlier than normal. I waited 20 minutes to get a smoothie at our local fast food restaurant. It is because of waits like these and my lack of patience that I normally do my Christ­mas shopping on Christmas Eve day.

There is little traffic, the stores are not crowded, the lines at the gift wrap­ping kiosks are not long, and one doesn’t have to wait for 30 minutes to get a table …

In August I wrote a column titled "Reflections." In that column, I dealt with the question of what the worst part about having multiple myeloma was.

Personally and professionally, I am now going through a far more reflective stage in my life than I was then.

In six weeks, I will retire from my position as a school superintendent. After 37 and a half years in education, there are plenty of memories to reflect on. Because of the fact that multiple myeloma has such a huge impact on my life, reflecting …

Mental health professionals would probably scoff at my self-diagnosis, but by most definitions of the word, I think I have become a hypochondriac.

My general understanding of hypochondria is that it is an unusual or ex­cessive concern about your health; a tendency to fear or imagine that you have illnesses that you do not actually have.

One description of hypochondria states that it persists even after a phy­si­cian has evaluated a person and reassured them that their concerns about symptoms do not have an underlying medical basis, and that there is no …