Everything in life is rel­a­tive to that which we have ex­peri­enced. If all I knew was that a wood sliver hurts when I get one in my finger, then hav­ing a wood sliver would be a pretty im­por­tant issue. Just ask a three-year old with a wood sliver and lim­ited pain ex­peri­ences. No surprise there.

What I have found incredible, how­ever, is the 100 per­cent validity of the “everything being rel­a­tive” state­ment when confronted with can­cer on a personal level. Remember the day when the doctor told you you have can­cer?

Prior to my …

There is no denying that each of us with mul­ti­ple myeloma has an idea about sur­vival and what it means. According to the online dic­tio­nary that I use, sur­vival is “the state of continuing to live or exist in spite of a dif­fi­cult cir­cum­stance.”

So in our case, the dif­fi­cult cir­cum­stance is can­cer; if we see another sun­rise, we are sur­viving.

I like sur­vival. Survival is good. It is some­thing that I really, really desire. Without being political, I unabashedly vote for sur­vival!

However, just using or ac­cepting that definition of sur­vival, in …

I cannot help but at least con­sider the idea that some part of my having can­cer was my fault. No, I am not beating myself up. To do so would be terribly cruel and unfair. Life provides us with that in ad­e­quate doses as is. I cer­tainly do not need to add on to that. However, in spite of all evi­dence to the contrary, it has been con­sidered at times in the dark recesses of my small mind.

Before being diag­nosed, I did not smoke. I was a mod­er­ate drinker, ex­er­cised reg­u­larly, …

I wrote my first column for The Beacon last summer not really know­ing what to ex­pect. At the time, I had two major con­cerns. 

The first con­cern was that I had never really written much for pub­lic con­sump­tion, so I was un­cer­tain about my ability to connect with an audience or provide a reason­ably in­ter­est­ing take on living with mul­ti­ple myeloma. 

The other con­cern has been the always present un­cer­tainty as to whether or not I would still be around to write about my ex­peri­ence.

Well, here I am, 11 months later. …

When trying to encapsulate my life ex­peri­ences and paths traveled, there are two very distinct roads taken. There was the path taken with ex­peri­ences before “the cancer,” and then, of course, there is the cur­rent path of living with “the cancer” that I am on now.

While recognizing that there were events before diag­nosis that were mem­o­ra­ble – wedding, birth of chil­dren, death of a parent – generally speak­ing, my life before mul­ti­ple myeloma was pretty routine. My old life.

My new life started a little after 11 a.m. on Jan­u­ary 15, 2015 in a …

Sometimes you can teach old dogs new tricks, and other times those old dogs just need to remember the tricks they already know.

I have been living with mul­ti­ple myeloma for over five years, and trust me when I say that I am very grateful for this time. My gratefulness for life is hard to put into words. I love getting up in the morn­ing and realizing that I am looking down at the green grass. That is tre­men­dous and never taken for granted.

That is not to say, how­ever, that life …

I must be honest with you, I think about dying a lot. Certainly not all of the time, but it is a big part of my daily routine and has been since I was diag­nosed. And that is some­thing that is new to my life.

Much of my life after diag­nosis has been about the same as before diag­nosis. I still work and put in time at the office. I still play golf and try to exercise at least four to five times a week. My wife and I still visit with our friends, …