First Draft

Isabella Mata

period 7

   Imagine just nearly losing your life form a doctors mistake in surergy and only a couple months later into recovering a doctor tells you that you have been diagnosed with cancer. That is exactly what happened to Robert Mata.

  On March 19, 2012 Robert Mata was informed by his doctor that he had stage 3 Multiple Myeloma.

Multiple Myeloma is a typeof blood cancer that if found in the bone marrow. This type of cancer is uncommon and happen to be only found in every 1in 143 people and Robert happened to be one of them.

   

According to Robert the cancer was detected when a doctor had noticed protein in his urine during a physical. the doctor had sent him off to a kidney specialist who noticed that it wasn't his kidneys but was something not right in his blood. After running numerous of test he was finally sent to a doctor that specializes in cancer who took a little bone marrow form his spine. the doctor found little holes in his bone that means that if this wasn't treated soon his spine could snap due to the weak bone. And finally he was called in to be told he had cancer. "My first throughout after the doctor had told me that I have been diagnosed with cancer I ask him what can we do to treat it," said Robert.

  

 Although Robert had past experiences before he never expected that this would effect him. His mom had Ovarian cancer and his farther had Prostate cancer. Betsy, his wife, had breast cancer a couple years before he was diagnosed.

  

 Apparently Betsy found out a week before Robert did as she received a call from the doctors with Robert not knowing. "I was shocked and in disbelief when I heard the news that he was diagnosed with cancer,"she said. "Even though I did anticipate the outcome form all the test. I was still hoping that it want going to be cancer."

 Although his son Cameron who was only in 8th grade at the time didn't expect anything like this. He was only a child when his mom was going through Breast cancer and didn't think that his family would gave to go through this again. Cameron was told a couple weeks after his dad was diagnosed. "I was shock to say the lease,"said Cameron."He had told me that I would have to be the man of the house and take care of my little sister and mom."

 With his caregiving being his wife and his support group being his children, Robert started his first Stem Cell Transplant in the beginning of August in 2012. His daily schedule required daily visits to the Southern Methothodes Hospital in San Antonio. When he first got there the doctors went into his neck and put a juggler vein in there. The next couple of days the doctors had to take out his stem cells through a machine that separate his stem cells and replenishes the plasma back into his body. Once the doctors got the stem cells the machine had to count them in order to make sure there was enough stem cells for the transplant. The doctors needed 5 million stem cells and he had 13 million taken out of him. "The doctors had froze my stem cells and it looked like a bag full of frozen blood," said Bobby.

  

  After the stem cells were frozen the rotors gave him chemo through a IV for a couple days before leaving back to were his family was staying to inly return the next day. They put the stem cells back with a needle that looked to be 12 inches long and 2 inches in diameter. the nurse had slowly put the stem cells back through his arm. Robert then came back for 15 days to check his white blood cells every morning before he was released back home.

  Robert wa required to wear a mask to and from the hospital every and had to avoid anybody who was sick due to his extremely weak immune system. even though this was a long process Robert stayed motivated everyday. "what kept me motivated everyday was the thought of living and staying alive,"said Robert.

 This while experience made Robert realize that people had it worst then him. There were so many people at that hospital who had a wist typeof cancer that they were fighting. "I met so many amazing people at the hospital who I really connected to because ether understood what i was going though,"said Robert."We all shared stories and all the people were so young and just gave off good vibes and we always kept on fighting though cancer together."

  

  Although in every situation there are some ups and downs. Robert and Betsy had to sometimes be away from there children for over a week. But his highest point was when he got to finally see his children. "I had to become really responsible when my parents were away and that meant growing up ad not being a kid anymore,"said Cameron.

This whole experience was life changing and left a impact on everybody. And after the first stem cell transplant he was told that he had to do another one due to having a certain type of chromosome that had drought off the first stem cell transplant. But he was so happy to have his family there by his aide for all this time. "I stayed positive because I felt that I needed to show my family hat everything was going to be okay and that I would not give up." said Robert."I had no doubt in my mind that I would would not die form this cancer."

 Robert Mata never stop fighting because even though the cancer will never fully go away he made it finally into remission.

 He has been fighting cancer for 4 years now and will continue and never stop fighting with his loving family by his side.