Dr. Mel

Welcome to drmelmyeloma.com. I have been called “Dr. Mel” ever since I received my Ph.D. in meteorology and oceanography from New York University in 1976. So, I am not a “real’ doctor, but I have had multiple myeloma since 1996, and I have gained a lot of personal experience and knowledge about the disease.

A day doesn’t go by without me receiving several calls and e-mail from patients or families that are battling with myeloma, and they need some guidance and advice from another person who is living it. And that is the reason for beginning this website – to help those that need some light shed on their lives which can appear especially bleak and confusing.

 What treatments have worked well for me and others? Where have I gone to find these treatments? What trials have worked? What doctors seem to have that special magic? Where are the great myeloma centers? You’ll soon find out why I am so positive about our future.

So, I am not a medical doctor, and I am not dispensing professional medical advice – just personal experience. You should always see your own doctor before going on any new path or refining an old one.

 But helping us along in this website is one of truly great myeloma doctors in the world – Dr. Kenneth Anderson of the Dana-Farber Institute. He has been my doctor for the past five years, and I have been truly blessed to have him by my side. His research has completely changed the landscape of myeloma treatment, and his own special style of optimism is without match. His ground breaking work with velcade and revlimid is providing new myeloma treatments for the first time in decades. All of us in the myeloma family are so fortunate to have him.

One last note- this website is not designed to be a universal one on myeloma and the end all of myeloma websites. It is meant to be limited to my own experience and the experiences of others who have been so successful with this disease. This is about living and coping with myeloma on a very personal level. I have provided links to other websites which are truly excellent in many aspects of myeloma. You should frequently use these resources. But this website is about living with active disease from the perspective of someone who wakes up each morning at 2:00 AM, heads off to work, goes on TV and tells tens of thousands of people about the weather.