Josine Young

Josine Young was diagnosed with myeloma after she hurt her back lifting a box of legal documents at work in 2014. She felt the pop in her lower back, and the pain worsened each day. Her primary care physician gave her oxycodone but the pain never stopped and ended up being hospitalized, then was transferred to Columbia. The next day, she was diagnosed with stage III myeloma with 32 compressed fractures in ribs and spine and 95 percent myeloma in her plasma cells. Josine started on zoledronic acid (Zometa), bendamustine hydrochloride (Treanda) and cyclophosphamide-bortezomib-dexamethasone (CyBorD), then was on cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan) for induction therapy for three cycles. She then had an auto stem cell transplant in February 2015 and afterwards received consolidation therapy of subcutaneous shots for 8 weeks. In September of 2015, she started lenalidomide (Revlimid) and then in 2017, when her light chains started climbing, ixazomib (Ninlaro) and dexamethasone were added. Later, she had 39 consecutive zoledronic acid infusions, then started getting it every 3 months. Her last zoledronic acid infusion was March 2019 and then her oncologist said she could stop that infusion since she is considered very good partial remission (less than 10 percent mm in her plasma cells). In her free time, she is in a book club and loves Disney World family vacations.