I started chemo today, 5 August 2025, in the company of my dear friends, the Dalby Twins. For those of you who do not follow Dean’s Facebook account, here is an update regarding his health situation.
Hello — here is what is going on with me on July 18, 2025. A simple, household accident revealed that I have cancer: multiple myeloma is manifesting itself in my spine and ribs. As time has gone by, my ability to perform most physical movements has become more limited, day-by-day. My close circle of friends has been assisting me with my medical appointments and basic household tasks. I am greatly indebted to them for their love and kindness.
I have finished a radiation treatment series and next week I begin several months of chemo. I hope that I will be able to arrange transportation to and from the hospital to receive my weekly injections for that business.
Unfortunately, my condition has made it impossible for me to continue performing with Bounding Main this season. I am hoping that I can rejoin the group before the end of the year.
I confess that I am in a great deal of pain because of where this myeloma is located. It has become very challenging to rest and I am often rather tired. The simple act of breathing is hindered by the pain I feel by expanding my ribcage to draw breath. I have to limit my interactions because of all of this, but please know that I miss all of you. I look forward to coming out on the other side of this thing and seeing everyone again.
In for a penny, in for a pound. (July 25, 2025)
My previous post detailed my current challenges with multiple myeloma. It is a form of cancer that occurs in bones, and mine has been focused on my spine and rib cage. I am pleased to report that my radiation treatments have done a great amount of good in reducing the pain that I’ve been experiencing in my lower ribs and spine. The pain had moved to my sternum – the breast bone. It has been just as troublesome as the lower ribs because most every extension of your arms and waist involves the sternum which, for me, presented with stabbing pain. I have been learning how to control my posture for minimal incidents.
My good friend, David HB Drake, came over for a visit last Saturday. When I awoke that morning my acute but somewhat-controlled sternum pain had doubled into something that stopped me in my tracks. I could barely walk – I was short of breath and the pain was staggering – a 10 on a scale of 1-10. My Bounding Main partner, Jonathan Krivitzky, was swinging by on an errand, at which point I asked him to please take me to the ER. With grace and aplomb, he drove me there and helped me to get admitted. Some of the details get fuzzy for me after this, but I was admitted to a room and was in the presence of the amazing Dalby Twins (It turns out they were watching over me for two days! Absolute angels!) when I was told by a cardiologist that I had a coronary incident (they used to call this a “heart attack”) and that I would have a stent installed post-haste. That happened, and I started recovering while Patrick James Knapp Jr looked in on me. The look on his face made me think that I must have looked like hell. (It seems the myeloma pain was masking a coronary issue – lucky me!)
Fast forward to today (July 25, 2025): for the last two days I have felt remarkably well. Patrick and I went out to lunch and he was impressed by how good I looked and how well I was getting about. I think that stent did a world of good. I am staged to get a second stent at a different facility with more advanced equipment perhaps sometime in August. All of this has me enjoying a boat-load of chemo and coronary medications. Gina and Patrick have worked on a med-list that is helping me enormously with dosages and application times. I cannot express enough how wildly fortunate I am to have such amazing friends.
I was advised that some of my meds will make me sleepy: I took an unexpected five-hour nap in my office earlier today just to prove them right!
So, I have a bunch of things that have happened unexpectedly, and more things coming up, but right now I am feeling pretty well. I am depending upon the assistance of the following people to keep the MMDI running while I am under the weather:
I urge you to reach out directly to them for assistance with listings and other inquiries.
Dean