My husband and I recently took a road trip to Golden and Revelstoke in British Columbia. We hiked and went sightseeing among the mountains and lakes.  It was truly beautiful there.

While driving down one country road, we passed a tractor that was mowing the tall grasses along the shoulder. Seeing that triggered my memory, since mowing is ‘low tech’ compared to other ways of clearing vegetation that I have noticed in the past. When I was young, I saw railway right-of-ways and the area under power lines being defoliated by herbicides. …

In last month's column, Dreams and Destinations, I recounted the wacky drive I took down to Little Rock, Arkansas, for my first doctor’s checkup after having been off of all multiple myeloma drugs for six months.

Because of a series of inconvenient events, the normal four-hour drive stretched to almost eight hours.

My progress was impeded by a blown tire at 60 mph, two sobriety roadblocks, a couple of small town speed traps, a frustrating crawl behind a wagon train of snail-paced RVs, a standstill as an overturned poultry truck was …

In last month’s column, I wrote about how much my perspective on myeloma therapy has changed over the past six years since my diagnosis.  In a nutshell, I’m more willing to try new things and endure troubling side effects now than I was back when I was still a “rookie.”

My attitude about stem cell transplants is a perfect example of this.  I look at stem cell transplants differently now – both allogeneic transplants (using donor stem cells) and autologous transplants (using my own stem cells).  Not only would I be …

Fellow myeloma patients: When do you let new friends, casual acquaintances, or even strangers know that you have cancer?

When I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2005, I immediately sent out a long e-mail to all of my friends and family. Then I started a blog and told everyone to visit it for regular updates about my health. My cancer was in no way a secret.

Nearly eight years later, my cancer is still not a secret. It’s just more difficult to tell people I have it.

Sometimes, I’m not sure …

For six weeks this summer, my wife and I are spend­ing three- to four-day, ex­tend­ed weekends on an idyllic lake 70 miles north of Manhattan.  We have rented a house that sits on a small lake (about three quarters of a mile long and a one quarter of a mile wide). 

When it rains, the lake over­flows the small dam that trans­formed what was a swampy pond into the lake.  The lake then becomes a very small source for one of New York City’s water supply reser­voirs.

Since the water in …

I don’t know about anyone else, but when I was diag­nosed with mye­loma back in 2004, my work hours, which were already slim, were immedi­ately cut back. When it be­came clear I could no longer perform my usual and customary job du­ties, my employ­ment ceased entirely. I didn’t receive any unem­ploy­ment bene­fits after my termination.

Before anyone rushes to comment on my rights as a worker, let me add one ad­di­tional note: I was self-employed. At the time of my initial diag­no­sis, I was a law­yer in a small office in my …

Karen Crowley's most recent Beacon column titled "Live Like You Are Living" struck a chord with me.

In the column, she discussed how some cancer patients meet their disease head on, how they want to live each day to their fullest and not give in, and how they're admired for doing so.

She countered this with the position that it's also okay to feel sorry for yourself, and that we may not always want to, or be able to, put our best foot forward.

As I read the column, it caused …