The week between Christmas and New Year is a time to appreciate, give, and celebrate. It is also a good time for reflection.

I imagine what direction my own life will take during 2012. What do I want? What can I do?

I wonder about the people who have just received a diagnosis for multiple myeloma and others who remain in treatment. I wonder about people suffering from a variety of other ailments, as many of my friends are.

People make resolutions at this time of year, and many of these well-intended …

Five or six years ago, I noticed that my wife was consistently biking a lot faster than I was when we took bike rides on the weekends or when I met her on her way home from work. 

So, as a 60^th birthday present to myself, I bought a very lightweight bike constructed out of space-age material in the hope that I could keep up.

Alas, the flashy new bike didn’t help: my wife continued to outpace me. She is a tiny woman, but she also is two years younger than I …

It is hard to believe Christmas is here.  I’ve mentioned to some friends that, since my sister Deana’s myeloma diagnosis on April 27 this year, I’ve had little sense of the passage of seasons and holidays. I suspect many of you understand. 

Since my last column, Deana, who underwent a stem cell transplant the day before Thanksgiving, has been released from the hospital. So Christmas came early for us. 

When Deana was admitted for her transplant, one of the doctors came by the first day (Day Minus Two) and told us that …

So why name this column "Me vs. MM”?

Because I basically consider myself at war with multiple myeloma, and my philosophy is to battle it as best I can.

I realize it might be more appropriate to name it "Us vs. MM", since ours is definitely a collective effort that includes family, friends, doctors, nurses, and many others.

But, in the end, I just felt the personal part of the battle – the “me” – is too important to leave out.  In the end, I am the one who is going to …

The cancer world is full of clichés.  We are inundated on a daily basis with expressions, such as “the long and courageous battle,” “stay positive,” “survivor,” “every day is precious,” and now of course, pink ribbons.

One of the most common cancer clichés is the idea of the “new normal.”  After a cancer diagnosis or cancer treatments, people constantly toss around the term new normal. But what does this really mean?

When I was younger, in my twenties and thirties, I was an avid runner.  It was what I did and part …

“Daddy, do you remember that Christmas when you were bald?” my eight-year old daughter Lizzie recently asked me.

Until that point we had been talking about the eagles that occasionally glided in the skies above the lake next to our home in the Ozarks of southwestern Missouri.

“Uh… yes,” I chuckled, amused at her segue from bald eagles to the cue-ball that I had donned three years earlier during my chemotherapy treatments for myeloma. “Do you remember when I was bald?”

“Yeah, of course I do. There’s a goofy picture of you …

Today is Day Twelve.

For those who have been through a stem cell transplant, you know exactly what that means. 

"Thankful" doesn’t begin to express my feelings for the researchers who work tirelessly and have brought about the medical advances that make these myeloma treatments possible.

My sister Deana, who was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in April, was admitted to the hospital on Monday of Thanksgiving week to undergo a stem cell transplant.

I was right there with her.  Correction: Me and my 150 pounds of luggage, filled with books, …