When I was first diagnosed with myeloma in 2005, I was a 30-year-old new mom, and I felt very alone.

It wasn’t that I didn’t have friends around me. I did – and they were all supportive and helpful. Most of them were also 30-year-old new moms, so I never felt alone motherhood-wise.

Cancer-wise, however, nobody else I knew was going through what I was going through. All of my friends were busy having more babies and look­ing toward the future. I was stuck in a world of doctors, needles, x-rays, and …

The passing of Arnie Goodman and Stephen Kramer, two men who I only knew from their writings at The Beacon, impacted me in a way that I never would have thought possible.

I struggled to explain to my 18-year old son why I felt such a loss as a re­sult of two men I didn't know personally. It wasn't until I began writing this column that I realized why.

Both men had a purpose-driven life with multiple myeloma. They im­pacted others through their writings and other activities related to mul­ti­ple …

A couple of months ago, my girlfriend Audrey and I received email invi­ta­tions to my grandson Blake’s first birthday party. It was scheduled for June 28.

When Audrey and I discussed the invite later that day, she asked:  “You know what that day is?” I thought about it but I drew a blank. She said: “You know … that is THE DAY!”

Then it hit me.

It was June 28, one year prior, that I received the call from my family doc­tor telling me that the blood test I had taken earlier …

My August column was going to be funny (well, maybe at least amusing). My oncologist made such an off the wall statement at my July appoint­ment re­gard­ing mammals and my sudden inexplicable weight loss (never a good sign) that I had pretty much written the column in my head as I drove home from Chicago following our Big Road Trip.

(For those of you wondering after last month’s column, it was a great road trip. It absolutely wore me out, and I was pretty sick by the time we walked back …

In my new life five years following my myeloma diag­nosis, I am still coming to grips with what it means to me to have a cancer that could flare up again at any time.

The fact that I have my blood tested for myeloma markers every three months, and meet with my on­colo­gist shortly thereafter to go over the results of these tests, tells me that this is not just idle speculation.

While I try to just relax and enjoy life at a steady pace, sometimes my worries get the better …

Football season is coming up fast, and as a former (very former) player and lifelong fan, I can’t wait! It’s just the excuse I need to sit on the sofa in a chemo fog and not think about what else I could or should be doing.

In Hawaii, televised football games start at about 7:00 a.m. in the morning, so I can waste five hours and still have time to take the kids to the beach in the afternoon.

Amazingly, I find some similarities between football and my experience with multiple myeloma. …

Most people avoid doing chores, whether it be washing dishes, mowing the lawn, doing laundry, or walking the dog. But for me, daily tasks are a joy.

I take great pleasure in the simple things. Routine is a welcome respite. I enjoy spending time around the house, chipping away at the “honey do” list – writing my column, or working on my next book with our dog, Finnegan, lying at my feet.

It wasn’t always this way. I dreaded the mundane and repetitive tasks from which there was no escape. But that was before I was diagnosed …