Well This Sucks

World Shortage of Masks? Meh.

Nothing much to speak of on my end. I start weaning myself off the back brace on the 13th. It was the 3 month mark of rebuilding the vertebrae crushed by the Multiple Myeloma mass. Right back atcha MM! I just started Round #4 of the chemotherapy. So far so... Read more →

No Big Deal

Since this diagnosis, my perspective has changed - on just about everything.  Things that would have annoyed the hell out of me before, now just seem to be something else in my day that will pass.  I got a little down when this was all heaped on me. Afterall, I did have crushed vertebrae in my back and it was caused by multiple myeloma -- and all of that felt like a pretty big deal. But since then? Like I said, there's a new attitude.  Read more →

A Short Update with MRIs and Werewolves

Having an MRI reminded me of a blog post Nancy wrote a few years ago on another web-neighborhood platform where we used to belong and post.  She doesn't do MRIs very well.  Below is her post.  I still crack-up thinking about it.  Read more →

Tom Brokaw's MM Remission Story

This link is the article that Dan and Nancy found shortly after the diagnosis that made them feel more hopeful. According to Nancy, finding this interview with Tom Brokaw "we felt it was the universe telling us that things were going to be OK. There's a link to a podcast interview with Jane Pauley in this article as well.  Read more →

Honest to Goodness Good News

Tuesday was our first visit to the neurologist since they told me to lay down and don’t get up until my hard candy coated shell arrived from the lab.  The crushed vertebrae was how we – like I had anything to do with it - discovered the Multiple Myeloma.  A lump had grown against the T-11 (or T-12, I forget) vertebrae, weakening it, causing it to be compressed by the two surrounding it.  Read more →

Like a Shot In the Back

This is a post I never wanted nor thought I'd be writing. Because my sister Patty tells me that I “bury the lede”, here it is… On Friday, November 22, Dan was officially diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma (MM).  Multiple Myeloma is a fairly rare form of blood cancer.  The cancer is in the plasma cells that as it grows, it crowds out the healthy cells in the bone marrow.   This causes bone pain and a weakened structure within the bones themselves. I say “officially” diagnosed because we had been given a working diagnosis of MM about a week and a half earlier. Read more →

Well This Sucks -- Mah-mah-mah-my Myeloma

It's a long story: but let's get to the punchline of this not-funny joke. My brother-in-law Dan was diagnosed with "multiple myeloma". What's that you say? Well, it's cancer. And a cancer diagnosis sucks. It sucks especially hard when you're hit with it out of the blue and you're a guy that doesn't really get sick - or not sick-sick anyway. In fact you're a guy who is fit and skates his ass off all year long refereeing hockey games, all while holding down a full-time job, and a business as a voice-over talent.  For the whole story of what happened when, please see the next post by my sister Nancy. She and Dan will be the main voices of this blog, I'm just kicking it off.  Read more →