Mayor absent from meeting for medical reasons

Staff report

Mayor Sharon King was absent from the Portales City Council meeting Tuesday night due to being admitted into a Lubbock hospital.

During King’s annual check up Monday, doctors discovered that her multiple myeloma has returned.

Multiple myeloma is a cancer that starts in the plasma cells in bone marrow, the soft tissue inside bones.

King was first diagnosed with the condition in August 2013.

She said three weeks ago, tests showed no signs of cancer, but she had been getting nauseous and having sleeping problems for the last month, so she began to become concerned that something was wrong.

King said she would stay in the hospital Tuesday night due to doctors being concerned about her kidney functions.

She said the next step will be receiving chemotherapy once a week for an unknown amount of time.

“I feel great with just a little discomfort, so we’ll just face this head on like we did before,” King said of the diagnosis.

She said she hopes to come through her treatments as easy as last time.