With the holiday season upon us, many of us are thinking about the gifts we plan to give to friends and family members.

For children, the latest toys, pieces of sports equipment, or video games seem to be popular choices. For an adult, it may be a bit more difficult to choose a gift, especially for those who already have everything.

I thought I would share some gift ideas for myeloma patients or their caregivers that may come in handy. Gifts need not be too expensive to be thoughtful. It really …

I am writing this column on Friday, November 22, as I try to distract myself from a bunch of medical procedures scheduled for the Tuesday before Thanksgiv­ing: a bone marrow biopsy (ouch!), a skeletal scan, and a host of tests in preparation for enrollment in a clinical trial.

This clinical trial (my second) has prompted me to learn yet another new bio­log­ical term – “kinesin spindle protein” (KSP).  KSP, I have learned, is involved in the division of cells, and in particular in the division of multiple myeloma cells.  The drug that …

For me, November will always remind me of harvest time – my stem cell harvest time.

Six years ago this month, my family and I spent three weeks at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, so I could undergo stem cell collection. I wasn’t yet ready for a transplant, but my doctor wanted me to collect enough stem cells for three autologous stem cell transplants and then freeze and store them for future use.

During those three weeks at Mayo, I was able to squeeze out 10.4 million stem cells.  They are …

I don’t do book clubs.

Don’t get me wrong. I like the idea of book clubs. But I am a terrible member. The last book club I belonged to was made up of five to six women whom I knew, all bright, articulate, avid readers. A match made in heaven, or so it would seem.

The very first meeting I attended, when we sat down together to discuss a wildly popular, best selling novel that I loathed, the discussion went something like this:

Member 1: “Loved it.”

Member 2: “Great characters.”

Member …

When I was a young girl, I learned how to sail a small sailboat with just a main­sail and a jib during summer classes on the water reservoir in Calgary. Later on I sailed near our home on the coast of British Columbia.

Sailing is an exercise in balance, since you have to catch the wind for forward motion, but you also have to release the tension on the sails if a really strong gust of wind threatens to capsize the boat.

We used the expression ‘keeping on an even keel,’ which …

When I was in my thirties and early forties, before I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, I had a group of friends with whom I would take annual “guy” trips.  These trips usually involved traveling to a rustic area of Maine or Colorado and camping, kayaking, hiking, and any other manly adventures we could incorporate.

Of course, since I have been diagnosed with myeloma and have become progressively more immersed in my treatments, these trips have fallen by the wayside.

I was recently having coffee with one of the other key members …

"You gotta fight – for your right – to party!"  Remember that popular 1986 song by the Beastie Boys?  I was never a "rocker," but I couldn't get the song out of my head yesterday morning while I was doing some yard work.

A fellow multiple myeloma patient recently asked me, “How do other patients you know deal with their fatigue?  I’m tired all of the time…”  A great question with no simple answer.

So many things can cause fatigue in a multiple myeloma patient.  Stem cell transplant patients can feel the …