Riding The Wave – Multiple Myeloma

“Experience is not what happens to you; it is what you do with what happens to you.” – Aldous Huxley. As sisters, of course, we share much together. The loss of our father at a very young age. Then later the loss of our mother in 2001. And the most amazing grandparent’s a couple of […]

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CB #29 Marilyn, our wonderful friend and doctor, who I have mentioned before, sent us a “healing blanket” shortly after Dave’s diagnosis. This blanket was one made by all the members of her family; her sisters and their children, for her mother when she was ill and dying. It is a quilt of squares that […]

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Dave and I are currently in Little Rock for one of his regular checkups. MRI, blood work, bone marrow biopsy and a chat with our doctor to see how things are going. Believe it or not we enjoy coming. We are here in a very different way than the long year of treatment and weeks […]

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ARGH!  Dave was getting a sore throat last week and got a nice hacking cough. He’s successfully on the mend, but it brings up that FEAR that strikes at the heart of even the toughest caregivers whose loved ones have cancer where they have wiped out your immune system to try to get you back […]

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Today is a special day. (It was a FABULOUS DAY, a couple of photos! Click to enlarge.) Last year about this time, I got word that a childhood friend of my sister Lynn had cancer and that she was terminal and due to go into surgery shortly.  The “girls” asked if I would call her. […]

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They don’t eat and only seem to sleep! Dave dropped 40 pounds before he even started treatment! Fear and pain is not a recommended weight loss program, but it certainly worked wonders on Dave! Except that wasn’t planned or desired. Once he started treatment, both on the oral chemotherapy (Thalidomide/Dex) and then eventually the BIG […]

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CB #27 Originally, Dave and I were to pack up the Brookeville house and Kip and I would stay with my neighbor Gail.  I would keep working and then take vacation and head off to Egypt with a group of folks, primarily my friend Paula, who owns Rosehaven in Lexington, Kentucky. 0

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LIFE can seem harsh at times It can seem somehow unfair Why me? A fair question. But why not you? Why someone else? 0

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I’ve been avoiding writing a post on this… why?  Because what works for one, or some, doesn’t always work for others.  When you have cancer, migraines, back problems, depression or a whole host of other chronic illnesses, people come out of the woodwork to tell you what to try or what they read or what […]

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Welcome to my new WordPress, Bluehost hosted, Riding the Wave Blog.  I hope you like it and if you went to my old one on blogger and found yourself redirected here, I’m happy you found me!  Much thanks goes to my friend and former co-worker, Bari Mitchell, at the University of Maryland.  She spent time […]

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Hello dear friends!  It has been too long since I’ve posted. 1) I been working on improving it and learning about wordpress and garnering help from my dear friend Bari 2) I’ve been wonderfully BUSY! How wonderful it is for Dave and I to be living our lives unconsumed with Myeloma and treatment and, and, […]

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I’m taking a post break from my blog today and writing instead about Dan Patterson.  (His blog “The Scoop on Dan”)   0

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I knew about Caring Bridge (if you don’t, you should check it out) from friends of a teenager who had been in a car accident. It is a wonderful tool that allows you, in seconds to set up a website and tell everyone what is going on and then make “Journal” entries that friends and […]

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Well, now you have it up to the point of when this grand “adventure” begins. This is clearly not the “adventure” Dave and I had planned, but it is an “adventure” in every sense of the word. adventure Noun 1. a risky undertaking, the ending of which is uncertain: our African adventure 2. exciting or […]

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My father, LtCol Jim Hudson, was one of the original squadron pilots of the Lockheed SR-71 Reconnaissance plane, also known as the Blackbird. Less than 100 men have flown this aircraft. It is believed to be responsible for many of the UFO sitings in the 60s and 70s. Jim Hudson & Norb Budzinski, mid 1960s […]

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This is a true story, an adventure, a journey, whatever you wish to call it, of my experience caring for my husband, Dave, when he was diagnosed with (MM), a rare blood cancer (1% of all cancers, 14% of the three blood cancers – Leukemia, Lymphoma, Myeloma). I also cared for my mother, Chris, who […]

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You know how people will often say (including me), “Enjoy the journey”? Well, I wasn’t enjoying this journey, despite the beautiful moments and people I discovered along the way, I found that I would have liked to learn all the lessons, sans the journey through cancer. Thus, my title “Riding the Wave.” I was dropping […]

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I’m an incredibly optimistic and upbeat, but also realistic. I “choose” how I want to feel in the most dire of situations. Dave is more pessimistic by nature. This story of our journey to get Dave well, like our marriage, is full of the of our approaches to life. It reflects my deep commitment to […]

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Dave and I were in the middle of a coast to coast relocation. Our children were safely and securely nestle into college back in Maryland. I was busy tying up lose ends, getting the house sold and packed up, winding up my job and planning to help find my replacement. Dave was already in California, […]

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