Boy, do I strike out on this one!

Yes, I thank God everyday for being alive.  And last night I took our dog, Finnegan, out for a midnight walk down to the beach under a glorious full moon.

But truth be told, I get too caught up in all I have to do every day.

There are advantages and disadvantages to working from home. Yes, I can get up and write in the shorts and T-shirts I slept in last night if I’m too lazy to get dressed. Forget shaving. I can …

I was in line at the UPS Store waiting to send a sample of blood to my out-of-state myeloma doctors when an impatient man behind me muttered, "C’mon, don’t you know that our days are numbered?"

A shiver went down my spine hearing him speak the odd phrase that I’d heard three other times in the previous 24 hours. In fact, "our days are numbered" was starting to echo in my brain.

Do you know what it’s like when some catchy melody gets stuck in your head and you hear it over …

Lately I was considering just how time consuming it is for me to be a myeloma patient. Since I have been back on treatments since October of 2014, I have noticed that I now need more time to deal with myeloma.

Although I am really trying to live a normal life and not let the fact that I am taking Revlimid (lenalidomide) and dexamethasone (Decadron) get in my way, I have to admit that I am slowed down by the treatments.

I have to rest more because the Revlimid …

“You definitely have ONJ.”

Those were the shocking words that came out of the mouth of my oral surgeon about two months ago. The news that I had osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ) was totally unexpected.

Granted, I didn’t just happen to aimlessly wander into an oral surgeon’s office, open my mouth, and ask him what he saw. But I was there to have him rule out ONJ.

Instead, he ruled it in.

But his demeanor and what he said thereafter was equally unexpected. He said that he was not …

My husband Daniel, who was diagnosed with smoldering myeloma in 2012, has always had hearing problems. He has small Eu­sta­chian tubes that don’t ad­e­quate­ly drain fluid, his doctors say. His struggling Eu­sta­chian tubes usually bring at least one ear infection per year, and often lead to double ear infections when­ever his allergies get bad, which in the sub­tropical climate of Houston means a lot of the year.

Lately, Daniel has had a terrible time hearing anything. Over the years, there have been times when I wondered if he just had "selective hear­ing." Mainly this was …

I knew nothing about multiple myeloma until I’d been diagnosed with it.

I’d never even heard of it. Nobody I knew had ever heard of it. I certainly had never heard of another person who’d been diagnosed with it. I was alone and scared, frantically Googling to find out more.

Over the years, I’ve frequently needed to explain the disease to people and to correct those who confuse myeloma with melanoma. I’m sure this is a common experience for most of us who have this relatively uncommon disease.

Over the past couple …

Perhaps the biggest question someone who has been diagnosed with multiple myeloma faces is: Quality of life, or longevity?

As I reflect back on the three years since my diagnosis, I realize this question has factored into almost every decision I have made in dealing with the disease.

When my doctor recommended the “watch and wait” approach shortly after my diagnosis, the quality of life factor outweighed any benefits that might have been obtained by starting induction therapy in the early stages of the disease, even though my myeloma numbers justified treatment. …