Yarianis' triumph over adversity, one day at a time

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Move forward. One day at a time.

Yarianis thought those words as she stared at the steps of the two-story rental her family was staying in during Christmas of 2023. She was determined to climb the entire flight of stairs — 18 steps in all — on her own.    

Those words always steadied her through volleyball matches and practices that hadn’t gone her way.

It was difficult going up and down the steps without assistance on that day. At St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital®, where she was receiving physical therapy as part of her treatment for bone cancer, she always had a physical therapist with her to help. Not being able to move her left leg like before was a source of frustration for the teen athlete from Puerto Rico who, prior to her cancer diagnosis, not only excelled in volleyball but had reached international levels of competition.   

“I said, ‘Let me see if I can go up using both my legs, and when I saw I could do it with both my legs, it was very emotional because I wasn’t able to do it before,’” Yarianis recalled. 

Yarianis’ moment on the stairs was just one significant step in her arduous road to recovery. Each day has brought new challenges, yet Yarianis has faced them with the same unwavering determination that fueled her volleyball career. She looks forward to her physical therapy sessions at home in Puerto Rico, where she works hard to regain more of her strength.  

"Every time I arrive, they have something new for me because of the things I can do and because they raise the level of physical therapy," she said. "I'm excited to find out what new thing I'm going to do."

Her parents, Yamilka and Jose, are grateful for each new stage in her recovery and in her life. Yarianis graduated high school in the spring of 2024, attended a graduation dinner with her parents and is making plans for her future.  

“The most important thing is that she is doing well,” Yamilka said, “and we are so grateful to St. Jude. She is the girl that she used to be, active and is slowly returning to the life she had.” 

 A swollen leg   

Before her diagnosis, Yarianis had trained relentlessly for volleyball. The early morning exercises and long hours of practice and games after school had paid off.  

At 17, the 6-foot-tall middle blocker was a member of the Puerto Rico women’s national under-19 in international women’s volleyball competitions.  

In 2022, Yarianis and her teammates beat Mexico in the quarterfinals at the Girls U19 Pan American Cup. In that match, Yarianis showcased her prowess with a match-high four blocks. The win qualified Puerto Rico for one of four spots available to teams from The North, Central American and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation for the 2023 International Volleyball Federation World Championship.    

A few months later, during her junior year in high school, Yarianis accepted a scholarship offer to play volleyball at a university in Ohio, where she intended to pursue a degree in psychology.  

Her academic and sports aspirations seemed to be on track and going better than she or her family had dreamed.

Yarianis was even invited to talk about her college acceptances and future volleyball plans on a Puerto Rican sports show. One of the show’s interviewers described Yarianis and other players who had been offered scholarships as the pride of Puerto Rico.  

 “My daughter is so loved by Puerto Rico. She has had so much success in volleyball and had so much support from the fans,” Yamilka said. “There were big expectations.”

Yarianis continued her training to play in the Pan American Cup in 2023, an event that also serves as Pan American Games classification. Maybe the Olympics would be in her future one day, she thought. 

Then one morning, during her exercise routine, Yarianis felt pain in her left leg. A few weeks later, she began to feel tired quicker at practice. Her left knee became swollen. She was told at first the swelling was due to too much training. She rested. It didn’t get better.

After a visit to an orthopedic doctor, an X-ray, followed by a CT scan, MRI scan and a biopsy, Yarianis was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a cancer of the bone. 

Yamilka, an intensive care nurse, immediately thought the worst. 

“I just started to cry. I had lost my mom to cancer and now I had to face this with my daughter,” she said.  

Treatment miles away

Doctors in Puerto Rico told Yarianis and her family that she needed to seek treatment right away. She was referred to St. Jude.  

“They explained to us that it was an aggressive cancer and it could spread to my lungs,” Yarianis said. “Everything was so fast and I didn’t really have time to process it, but it was not something that discouraged me. Instead, I was ready to face the process to come.”

Yarianis felt hopeful. Even though she would be away from most of her friends and family, she was confident St. Jude would provide her with good care. 

“When I arrived at St. Jude, I felt sure that I would get the support I needed,” she said

At St. Jude, Yarianis learned the cancer had spread to her lungs.  

Because the disease had metastasized to her lungs, Yarianis’ osteosarcoma diagnosis was considered high-risk. In April 2023, within days of her arrival at St. Jude, surgeons performed a lung resection to remove the cancerous nodule.  

Yarianis also began chemotherapy within days of her arrival. Chemotherapy for osteosarcoma aims to treat the primary tumor as well as prevent new disease in the lungs and other bones. In preparation for her eventual leg surgery, she started physical therapy in early April to learn not to use her left leg after surgery to allow for recovery. Four months later, surgeons performed limb-sparing surgery. 

Following decades of advances in limb-sparing surgical techniques, approximately 90-95 percent of St. Jude patients with osteosarcoma undergo some type of limb-sparing procedure. Through these procedures, surgeons work to remove tumors without harming nearby nerves, blood vessels and organs. They must remove the entire cancer as well as a small area of normal tissue around it to ensure no cancer is left behind. Through grafts or prosthetic implants, like the hinged knee prosthesis Yarianis received, patients are able to use their limb for everyday activities such as walking and helping sustain their quality of life after treatment.

St. Jude surgeons continue to explore new limb-sparing techniques to improve survival and help children live normal lives after treatment. 

Yarianis’ operation was a success. Recovery, however, was difficult.

“It was a huge operation,” she said. “And during physical therapy I had to take medicine to help with the pain. I think the pain was the most difficult.”  

Despite the pain, Yarianis set goals for herself.  She reminded herself: Move forward. One day at a time. 

At first, physical therapy required her to do exercises sitting or lying down. Later, she used a bicycle. Then, finally, she took steps with physical therapists standing by her side. In October, three months after surgery, Yarianis took her first steps by herself. 

"I was very excited that I was going to start walking," she said. 

After conquering the stairs in December during a brief getaway from Memphis, Yarianis returned to St. Jude for more physical therapy and to complete her chemotherapy. She went home in February 2024, and within weeks was back in school. Her classmates welcomed her with open arms and in May she graduated from high school and enjoyed her senior prom. 

Yarianis is not playing volleyball these days, but she hasn’t left the court entirely. She has enrolled in coaching courses, aiming to mentor younger volleyball players. She will not go to Ohio for college, and instead will start classes at a university in Puerto Rico. Her career goals also have shifted   — she now aspires to become a physical therapist. Her dream? To work at St. Jude. 

She’s moving forward. One day at a time.