Joanne Kiemele

Welcome to Joanne's CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.


In October 2019, Joanne had been plagued for over a year with pain which she attributed to sciatica. What a shock to find through X-Rays, CT Scans, MRIs and biopsies that it was a mono plasma cell cytosis (tumor) on the Iliac crest portion of her hip bone, plus the early stages of multiple myeloma. The tumor had caused a fracture, which intensified the pain.  Since the diagnosis, she has been using a walker at home, and for transport to farther places, a wheelchair. She is not supposed to put any weight on her right foot, so that inhibits her movement considerably.  She has undergone 15 sessions of radiation to help shrink the tumor. The next step will be to undergo surgery to shore up the iliac crest bone that has been compromised and also do a total hip replacement. This is scheduled for January 23, 2020, and chemotherapy will begin about a month later.