It has been some time since we’ve been in touch, and from the perspective of Team Beat The H*ll Outta Multiple Myeloma, that is a good thing.  There’s just not much to report as we settle further into the “new normal.”

While there is still much I am interested in sharing, it is time to bring this column to a conclusion.

I have greatly appreciated the opportunity to write a column for The Myeloma Beacon.  I also remain inspired by the many emails and comments I receive from readers, particularly those who …

Most (if not all) of us know that treating cancer is not cheap.

During my first year of treatment, my insurance was billed approximately $250,000, which covered blood tests, x-rays, bone marrow biopsies, stem cell collection, appointments, infusions, and other various and sundry expenses throughout the year.  Since I was part of a clinical trial, the costs of Revlimid (lenalidomide) and Kyprolis (carfilzomib) were not billed, otherwise the cost would have been almost doubled.

During my second year of treatment, the total billed to insurance was "only" $125,000, …

Velcade is my velocipede.

Velocipedes were all the rage in post-Civil War America. Known also as “boneshakers” for the rough physical treatment these early bicycles gave their riders, they proved tricky to master.

Novelist Louisa May Alcott wrote a velocipede into her novel An Old-Fashioned Girl. A character in the novel, Tom, “whizzed by [on his velocipede], arms and legs going like mad, with the general appearance of a runaway engine.”

With no brakes and only primitive steering at his disposal, Tom soon ended up in the gutter, with a “great cut” that …

In mid-January I had a routine check-up, and I had my blood drawn for testing ahead of time.

On the day of my check up, I was running late, so, when I got to the cancer cen­ter, I just rushed up to the unit clerk’s desk to check in.  To my sur­prise, the clerk handed me a requisition for another blood draw, but with no tests specified.

Startled, I quickly went down to the lab area.  It turned out that I had signed up for a clinical study at the time of …

From time to time, I will run into an acquaintance who is vaguely familiar with my situation but not really aware of all the details.  They will often ask, “Are you back to work these days?”

I usually will respond with something like. “I’m busy enough just taking care of my health.”  This is true, but an oversimplification.

The unfortunate reality is that I have become a full-time multiple myeloma patient.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. I never felt like that was part of the original plan.

When I was …

As a former drug and alcohol counselor, I was trained to identify and deal with the “elephant in the living room”  In other words, the painful reality that everyone would talk around but rarely face.  It might be a family member's alcohol or drug use, domestic violence, or incest. 

Denying a horrifying reality isn't anything new.  But I never expected multiple myeloma to make the top ten list! That is, no one ever wants to discuss dying from myeloma.

Well, I want to – no, I need to – talk about …

She stirs awake before the alarm sounds, even before the choir of song birds welcomes the day from their crooked perches on the 100-year-old black oak.  Yawning and brushing away the sleep from her eyes, she turns to listen to him.

His breaths are deep and measured. She is grateful that the congestion from this latest round of pneumonia seems to have passed. The hacking coughs that rattle his bones and rob his much-needed rest are absent now.

Still, last night’s sleep came to him in fits and starts. “If it’s not …