Before I get started, a word of warning: This column isn’t going to be a collection of tips on “how to handle dexamethasone side-effects.” I would be glad to write about that sometime in the future.

No, this column is about how patients can and should philosophically deal with side-effects caused by their multiple myeloma therapy. Philosophically? “What does philosophy have to do with my peripheral neuropathy or inconvenient constipation?” you might ask.

Here’s the thing. I don’t want to discourage patients from venting about their “dex days,” fatigue, or peripheral neuropathy. …

Last week, I spoke briefly with Greg Geissman, a public relations contact at Celgene, about the projected timeline for a new Phase 3 pomalidomide  research study in multiple myeloma.

As Greg finished describing the timeline, my mind wondered. I began to think about how different people view time.

Greg explained that it will take six months or more to find enough qualifying patients willing to participate in the study. The study itself will then take several years to complete. A successful result will hopefully lead to FDA fast track approval, which …

“You have multiple myeloma.”

That phrase, delivered by physicians at the University of Arkansas for Medical Science’s (UAMS) in November of 2008, was the first official, irrefutable diagnosis of my cancer career. We suspected that I had myeloma, but there it was. They said it out loud, and it still reverberates in my mind.

While I would have much rather heard, “Tests show that there is a pea underneath your mattress that has been causing your back pain,” I knew that I wasn’t immersed in some grim fairy tale. What was happening …

Late last year, my mother-in-law, Marie, lost her long battle with colon cancer. A few months before she died, I remember visiting her in the nursing home on a particularly bad day in September.

Marie was in pain—a lot of pain. I checked with the nurses station. The evening nurse was sympathetic, but unable or unwilling to help.

Fast forward one week. Marie seemed to be doing better. But not before my wife, Pattie, and I "rattled a few cages" and convinced Marie's physician, nurses, and nursing home personnel to take …

Among the challenges of being a fledgling, freelance medical writer, such as no steady paycheck and last minute deadlines, there are also some advantages. My schedule is flexible, and I get to meet some really smart, interesting people. Sometimes I even get to meet heroes. Yesterday, I met both.

Dr. Lee Green and Cathy Grant run a program at Moffitt Cancer Center called Moffitt Diversity. The program is designed to increase minority participation among researchers, staff, and patients at Moffitt—and it's working.

In 2009, the program started a neighborhood cancer outreach program …

One of the first things you learn with a multiple myeloma diagnosis is that your life as you knew it is irrevocably changed.

That’s true, I suppose, with any cancer, but it’s especially so for a disease that falls into that vague “not curable but treatable” category.

I see that phrase constantly these days in newspaper and web articles about myeloma, and I find some pretty dark humor in it. It makes it sound as if myeloma is just something annoying that you have to put up with. After all, it’s treatable. …

As a multiple myeloma patient, it can be difficult discussing our cancer with other people. It’s not that it’s hard to talk about myeloma, but it’s hard to know how much to share or not share – how much does the other person really want to know?

I had a somewhat unique experience of knowing a multiple myeloma patient before my myeloma diagnosis.

Loren Liedl was a dear friend of mine. He was a quiet family man who lived with multiple myeloma for over twelve years before he died late last …