Her story

This journey began early in 2011 with a backache that was thought to have started after shoveling snow. After a couple of months of dealing with it and not getting better, Maria went to see an orthopedic doctor who prescibed physical therapy. After the therapy was not successful, Maria started having numbness and tingling traveling down her legs. An MRI in July revealed that she had a tumor wrapped around her spinal cord. She had surgery to obtain a sample to biopsy and it revealed that the tumor was a plasmocytoma, a precursor to multiple myeloma. After many more tests, it was confirmed that she does have multiple myeloma. It is a cancer of the blood that is not considered curable but is treatable and can be put into remission for many years. In August, she started a combination of chemotherapy drugs taken orally and given as subcutaneous injections. She continued that for 3 cycles of 2 weeks on and 1 week off . She now is planning on going into Barnes hospital this Friday for what will hopefully be the treatment that puts her into remission, a stem cell transplant.