I was busy multi-tasking a couple of days ago. Well, I wasn’t actually busy busy. And maybe multi-tasking is a bit of an overstatement. Anyway, this is what happened:

I was drinking coffee AND watching tele­vision AND surfing the internet. Oh, and I was eating a Christmas sugar cookie that my daughter had just baked. Now if that’s not multi-tasking, I don’t know what is, right?

Let me start over.

At the very moment I was reading the word ‘mean’ in a comment about multiple myeloma statistics, I heard Thurl …

I had a sneaking suspicion that Thanksgiving 2008 wasn’t going to be an ordinary holiday. Unfortunately, I was right.

For starters, our long-held Thanksgiving plans had changed dramatically. Instead of taking a traditional over-the-river and through-the-woods trip north to visit relatives in Chicago, we ended up driving south to spend the holiday with relative strangers.

And to boot, my wife Karen and I had to leave our daughters behind. How’s that for Thanksgiving spirit?

Now, it’s not that we don’t love our kin and kids, but there were more pressing issues than …

It was during one of those insomnia-is-the-boss-of-me nights that I found myself flipping through channels on the television, trying not to get sucked into info­mercials pitching revolutionary new steak knives, miraculous space age teeth whiteners, or ultra-absorbent super sponges.

I eventually landed on a replay of a no-score soccer match between two English football clubs. I reasoned that the game’s back and forth would surely lull me to sleep. But then I heard this familiar song being belted out by rowdy Liverpool fans:

Walk on, walk on
With hope …

My wife will tell you that I am more like a tortoise than a hare because I always take my own sweet time about deciding things. I’m not so sure I agree. I’ll have to think about it and get back to you.

When I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma back in 2008, I was not afforded the luxury of channeling my inner tortoise to contemplate whether or not to begin treatment right away. I was in rough shape and I had to get moving quickly.

I met several people in those …

I recently watched the heart-shaped leaves of my backyard redbud tree flutter in the stiff breeze as the last few remaining pink blossoms floated to the grass below.

For two decades I have witnessed this quiet springtime rite of passage when the tiny buds turn into beautiful flowers and eventually fall to the earth a couple of weeks later.

The only time I missed the annual ‘redbud show’ was in early 2009 while I was away from home for ten months being treated for multiple myeloma.

My wife and I moved …

I have always watched my "numbers," such as blood counts and M-spike values, since having been diagnosed with multiple myeloma.

Here are some different kinds of numbers that come to mind when I reflect upon my seven-year journey:

10 SYLLABLES – When I started battling multiple myeloma in 2008, I felt like I was a David living in a Goliath’s world. My foe was a big, hairy beast of a cancer, and it was obvious that I couldn’t best him on my own. Fortu­nately, I found some people who were experts at gathering …

Seven years have passed since I first ventured to Little Rock, Arkansas, to be treated for multiple myeloma. My youngest daughter was nearly five when I began my journey. When she recently asked me to tell her again about what happened, I put a different spin on the tale:

Once upon a time there was a King who lived with his beloved Queen and their two young Princesses in a tiny castle at the edge of the forest.

They were a happy family. Laughter filled their daily lives. They prospered and got …