Seven months ago, after hav­ing smol­der­ing myeloma for 10 years, I crossed over into the ‘active’ dis­ease category. Thankfully, there was no dramatic myeloma defining event, just a painful bone mar­row biopsy that showed 60 per­cent plasma cells. How long I have been at 60 per­cent, I have no idea, which makes the de­ci­sion to proceed with treat­ment a dif­fi­cult one for me.

Back in March, when Covid-19 was start­ing to grip my region, my doctor agreed that it would be prudent to hold off on treat­ment, as Seattle was in the …

Since the pan­dem­ic began, I’ve been spending my days at home on my half-acre prop­er­ty, which I long ago nicknamed ‘SoFUH,’ which stands for Sokol Family Urban Homestead.

When I’m not out work­ing the land, and by that I mean dead-heading rho­do­den­drons, fuchsias, and geraniums, pulling weeds, or picking green beans and chard, I can be found inside either messing up or clean­ing up the kitch­en, perched on the sofa videoconferencing with loved ones, cor­re­spond­ing, reading, re­search­ing, or mending.

When that got old, I found myself looking around my house, …

I know it's been less than two months since I wrote another column with the word ‘wait’ in the title, but it seems to be a re­cur­ring theme for me.

I was officially diag­nosed with smol­der­ing myeloma 10 years ago this month, and I have been in watch-and-wait mode since then. My original hematologist offloaded most of her patients last fall, and I was assigned a new doctor.

Predictably, but nothing I had actually antic­i­pated, the new doctor wanted to know what …

I was diag­nosed with smol­der­ing myeloma in 2010 when my chil­dren were 7 and 10 years old. Three years prior, their Dad drowned after being ejected from his surf ski, a spe­cial­ized lightweight kayak.

I’ll never forget sharing the news of his accident with my chil­dren. Their Dad was in a coma in the intensive care unit. They were so young, it was such a shock, and they came up with what I thought were very sophisticated ques­tions. “Is he going to die?” my eldest asked. “Most likely,” I replied. “No, what …

I may be dating myself (actually, I date a wonderful man), but I find the lyrics to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ 1981 song ‘Waiting’ so apropos to mul­ti­ple myeloma, and per­haps all cancer.

The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you get one more yard
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part

I was 15 the summer when that song came out, a teenager in the midst of 11 siblings, work­ing as a nanny and a printer’s apprentice, …

Ten years ago, I was at my chiropractor seek­ing help for a chronic low back problem. I’d been seeing her for years with on again, off again back pain, presumably from work­ing as a nurse for many years. While her ad­just­ments were helpful for my back issue, I told her “I just don’t feel like running.” She thought that was strange, coming from me, a runner / jogger, former Ironman triathlete, and typically active and energetic person. So she ordered blood work (who knew chiropractors could do that?).

The result showed con­tinued …