“Inconclusive.”  That’s how my myeloma specialist described my current con­di­tion two weeks ago.

While I initially struggled with this description – because there was no clear-cut solution for it – I slowly came to see the upside of my current situation: It allowed me to not hurry to the next treatment, but rather em­brace every day, no matter how uncertain or painful it may be.

My new specialist at the Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, came highly recom­mended by several of my contacts at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. I was treated there for the first two years …

We’ve had a long, slow spring here in Ohio this year. Oh, there have been a few summerlike days here and there, but mostly the weather has been cool and often rainy, more like mid-April than early June. As a result, the peony bushes in my parents’ yard stayed shut tight for the federal Me­mo­ri­al Day but opened in time for the traditional Me­mo­ri­al Day on May 31.

Memorial Day, which began as Decoration Day following the Civil War, is still a big deal in our area. In the weekends leading up …

I am VERY lucky.  My Dad taught me how to live with multiple myeloma.

Aloha, my name is Tom Shell, and I am a 51-year-old man from Hawaii who has been living with multiple myeloma for two years now.  While living in Hawaii doesn’t help with the medical aspects of myeloma, it certainly doesn’t hurt my mental outlook!

I am a new columnist at The Beacon and will tell you more about myself in future columns.  For now, given that it’s Father’s Day in a lot of coun­tries around the world, let …

During my 25-year career as a boy’s basketball head coach, I coached over 600 games.

Regardless of whether it was the 1983 Class A state championship game in my rookie year as a head coach (we lost), or games against opponents that we were overwhelming favorites to defeat, my state of mind the night before each one of those 600 plus games never changed.

That state of mind is difficult to describe. It was one of unbearable ex­cite­ment, tempered by an actual feeling of fear. Fear that I had not prepared the …

Shortly after starting my new compassionate use protocol with elo­tuzu­mab, which I described in my previous column, I began to have elevated levels of my liver enzymes.

It initially was unclear whether this was occurring due to a reaction to the drug, a tumor in the liver, or other possible causes.

After several tests, including an MRI, a PET scan, and blood workup, the source of the problem was found to be unrelated to my new treatment. It was instead due to a condition I had developed called hemochromatosis, …

For many people who have just been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a key challenge is selecting a multiple myeloma specialist.

I did not face that challenge -- at least not initially.  I literally started treat­ment the day the diagnosis came in.

The evening before my diagnosis, after a routine checkup with my long-time family doctor in Nebraska, I got a call from the doctor’s urologist partner.

“I want you at the hospital within the hour,” the urologist said. “Stop at Walgreens, pick up a prescription I’ve called in for you, and drink …

I recently ran into a multiple myeloma friend who was wearing a t-shirt that triggered a memory of an exciting day in my life way back nearly 35 years ago.

It was in the late seventies, and I was a young college student working in the summer as a trumpet player for the (Anheuser) Busch Entertainment Cor­po­ra­tion.

Our music group had been flown to Boston to perform at a series of special events celebrating the introduction of a newly imported Anheuser-Busch beer, Wurzburger Hofbrau.

With no gigs scheduled that afternoon, the company …