I’m sure you have heard about the thera­peutic effects, both physical and emotional, of pets in humans. I can attest to that effect from my own personal experi­ence, especially since the time I have been dealing with multiple myeloma.

A golden doodle, which is a cross between a golden retriever and a poodle, came into our family as a puppy in 2012. This was about three years after my multiple myeloma diagnosis, so the dog did not know me when I was going through the worst of my myeloma-related injuries, induction therapy, …

A very close friend of long standing recently chided me, after reading my most recent column, for being too busy and doing too much. Of course I would be fatigued if I didn’t cut back. Didn’t I understand that?

I read her letter, set it down, and sighed. “It’s not the fatigue that’s the problem,” I said to my husband, Warren.

“I know.”

But how to convey that to my friend clearly and cleanly?

I finally came up with three check-off categories: Tired. Fatigued. None of the Above.

“Tired” is …

Two of my roles are rather heavy on acronyms: being a space engineer and a cancer patient. NASA (itself an acronym, of course) is renowned for being fond of TLAs (three-letter acronyms). Sometimes this makes sense, as it can shorten long, tech­nical terms to manage­able length. However, some­times it actually has the opposite effect; for example, the acronym for the two-syllable word "pilot" is the three-syllable PLT.

In the cancer area, terms can again be quite con­voluted, so acronyms can help to simplify things. For instance, many of the treat­ments for multiple …

My multiple myeloma diagnosis chal­lenges a funda­mental way that I’ve lived my life. I’ve always been one to use my knowledge and logic to take control and manage events.

Obviously, as patients, we simply don't control as much of our future as we once did. The disease is the primary in­flu­encer, and while we have choices about treat­ment options, we don't really control those either. I've struggled with the feeling that I've lost control, but that is not the challenge I'm speak­ing of here. I'm talking about a battle between hope and …

I’ve been a fan of figure skating since I was a child. I watched every Winter Olympics to see the skaters compete. I still like to go to the ice rink and watch skaters. When I’m there, I’ll close my eyes and listen, waiting for the "swoosh ... swoosh" as the skaters pass by with their colorful, spandexed gusts.

Recently, I took a rest from my errands in the mall and went to my favorite perch by the ice rink. This day there weren’t any figure skaters on the ice. What I saw …

Several months after I had my stem cell transplant, my doctor suggested that it would be a good idea to begin maintenance treatment with Rev­limid (lena­lido­mide). He believed that main­te­nance was likely to lead to longer pro­gres­sion-free survival. I remember him saying that, in his experience, main­te­nance therapy often put the myeloma into hiber­nation. That sounded good to me – long-term hiber­nation, I hope.

He also explained to my husband Graham and me that he thought that the main­te­nance therapy might lead to longer over­all survival. At the same time, he said that …

We just celebrated Thanksgiving this month here in Canada. It’s an op­por­tun­ity for families and friends to gather together, have a feast of their choice, and pause to reflect on their blessings in life.

This year, I felt very positive, and I was grateful for so many things in my life.

I felt very different in the autumn of 2009 when I recently had been diag­nosed with multiple myeloma. I was depressed and in a mild state of panic. It seemed a tall order at the time just to function somewhat …