Living

When I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2011 (which, by the way, when I say this, I feel like I’m the old guy telling kids how we did things...

Well, believe it or not, this week is week 32 of pregnancy and I have hit the eighth month! I can’t really believe how quickly time has flown by. The...

“You don’t look sick!” I’ve been told over and over again. Most of my pain is not readily visible. My oncologist had told me that I had won the “cancer...

On July 31, 2007, Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts announced that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. I was watching and paying attention. As I watched Robin, she...

In case you missed it, check out Part 1 of this series! The adage that “the customer is always right” may not always be true, but it is so much...

"Sometimes you have to buy flowers for yourself!" my friend said. So she does!  My friend, Lynn, frequently buys flowers to cheer up her office at work. Why not? I...

What a tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive. Though this quote may not be exactly where I’m going, there is a tangled mess when we deal with...

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve written which is odd as I have some mega news and normally I’d be shouting about it all over the internet, but, this...

If you live in Massachusetts but not in Boston, you’re a Bostonian on Marathon Monday. That at least is how I, living 90 miles away in Western Massachusetts, feel. And...

A few years ago, I came face to face with something called liminal space. What the heck is that you might ask? Good question. Quite simply it is the space between...

Dear Carole, I know that you are feeling overwhelmed and out of control. How could you possibly have blood cancer while feeling fine? Is this really happening? You just had...

Being an annoying cancer patient. No one wants to be one. In fact, no one wants to be an annoying anything (despite what my old boss would have you believe)...

Every year comes a new year. Yes, Katelynn, that's how years work. I know! But with each new year, many of us tend to make New Year’s Resolutions. This year...

It was the second pandemic Rosh Hashanah, and if I said I was a little sad, that would be an understatement. If you are Jewish or know anything about Judaism...

It’s always difficult to know what you should and should not reveal about your blood cancer to prospective employers or even at the job where you’ve been for a while...

On November 11, 2019, I was delivering for Meals on Wheels. It was a freezing day with snow flurries in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I wore my all-weather coat over a heavy...

When I was diagnosed with blood cancer, the life I knew ended abruptly. One day I was a high school math teacher, writing daily lesson plans. The next I was...

I got the most marvelous advice from a friend recently in just three simple words: lower your expectations. We were talking about time and how we spend it. Ten years...

I smile as I make my way into the room at the Brooke Army Medical Center Soldier Recovery Unit. Every chair for the music group has a masked-faced military member...

When it comes to the crowning glory of our hair, some of us feel a certain way when we lose it. When I was on treatment, my hair actually grew...