Dear Multiple Myeloma:

Do you remember me?

I am the poor sap that you decided to terrorize during Thanksgiving week of 2008.

Although it was five years ago, I well remember the cool and crisp weather of that late November and how the changing leaves painted a stunningly beautiful backdrop across the forests, the rolling hills, and the sunken hollows of the Ozarks.

I also recall that as my family began to plan our annual Thanksgiving festivities, you brutishly interrupted our designs by dragging me down into the depths of your mad, …

Four years ago, my sister found out there was going to be a 5K race near her home in Illinois that was raising money to go toward multiple myeloma research. My whole family showed up to participate.

I’d walked a few 5Ks, and while I always made an effort to exercise regularly – usually walking a few miles on a treadmill or going to a strength-training class at the gym – I hadn’t run a single step since eighth-grade gym class.

Walking was permitted in this race, of course, but I was …

It’s been nearly four years since I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, and I am only now experiencing my first significant period without chemo­ther­a­py.

Six weeks ago I came down with a bout of pneumonia, and my medical team decided that I should take a break from two medicines that I had been taking and that interfered with my white and red blood cell pro­duc­tion: Pomalyst (poma­lido­mide, Imnovid) and cyclophosphamide (Cy­tox­an).

Although I continue to take dexamethasone (Decadron) twice a week, the break from Pomalyst and cyclophosphamide should allow …

Many evenings as of late find me huddled on the couch, joints aching, a low-grade fever toasting my body, and an inability to do anything but con­template an early bedtime.

I’m fine, really I am. I just saw my oncologist in early October, and his parting words were “See you in eight weeks.” My lab numbers are steady; I am on no medications.

So what’s up with my new nighttime routine? I do not have definitive an­swer, but I have a pretty good intuited guess. Call it fallout from being a member …

Next Monday, October 14, we will be celebrating Thanksgiving Day here in Canada.

It is a time of family and friends getting together, sharing a meal, and en­joying each others’ company. It’s also a natural time to look back on the past year and to give thanks to the blessings we received throughout the year. And there is always much to give thanks for at harvest time.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it focuses on the positives in our lives. I feel truly blessed and thankful to have a loving family …

Several years ago, well before I had been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, we had a family friend who was diagnosed with an aggressive brain cancer.  He was one of these relentlessly upbeat, positive people, and of course, he approached his disease in the same way.

Despite the prognosis and all appearances to the contrary, he refused to accept any outcome except that he was going to “beat this thing.”   Now I cannot speak to what he was secretly thinking or what he felt in his heart of hearts, but that was the …

I won’t bury the lead.  Last week I learned that I’d relapsed yet again.  The news was unexpected.  After all, my monoclonal protein (M-spike) had been stable at a low 0.2 g/dL for over a year.  Now it had jumped to 0.5 g/dL.

Most multiple myeloma patients are asymptomatic with M-spikes a lot higher than 0.5 g/dL.  But that isn’t a good number for me.  I developed bone lesions at that number following my stem cell transplant several years ago.

Why now?  Why had the doublet of subcutaneous Velcade (bortezomib) …