For some people, Breast Cancer Awareness Month may be merely about wearing pink ribbons. But for one Kansas City survivor, Breast Cancer Awareness Month may have saved her life.
In October of 2010, Kim, age 49, saw pink ribbons for Breast Cancer Awareness Month and remembered she needed to schedule a mammogram – her first in three years. She told herself it would be a quick visit, and then she would go on her way.
But the mammogram came back with suspicious findings, and after having several biopsies and an MRI, Kim received a phone call from her doctor just before Christmas: she had breast cancer.
Because she had caught it early, the cancer was Stage 0 and Stage 1, which her doctor said was 98% curable. As Kim says, “Thank God it was caught early. One of the tumors was against my chest wall, so I would have never caught it on my own until it had been a stage 4 or 5. So when they say early detection is the best protection – it really is. I’m one of the lucky ones.”
Yet even with a good prognosis, the road ahead was not easy. Hearing a diagnosis of cancer is scary, and an unknown journey faced Kim, her husband, and her adult children. But with her strong support system in place, Kim determined to do whatever she could to beat the cancer.
Her team of doctors at Menorah Medical Center recommended that Kim begin hormone therapy, which she still continues, four years later. Kim also made the decision to have a bilateral (double) mastectomy and breast reconstruction – a choice that was ultimately not difficult for her to make.
“Even though my cancer was caught early, I didn’t want to have to go through it again in four, five, or six years. It seems extreme [to have a mastectomy], but cancer is extreme. Even though it’s a great loss as a woman – and it’s very emotional – once you get through the reconstruction and have the breast implants, you think: well, this didn’t turn out so bad. [My new breasts] felt and looked different. They had scars, but they were firm and tight. I learned to take care of the new implants, massaging them using scar creams and lotions, and exercising differently. I accepted them, and now they are a part of me. Breast cancer survivors go through a time of accepting their new bodies, but there is some silver lining in what we go through.”
Kim’s growing sense of accepting her body has given her some unexpected courage. Recently, Kim visited another country where topless beaches are considered the norm. So, in an act of bravery, she challenged herself – just for a moment – to go topless.
“It was liberating. I’m not ashamed of my breasts because of the scars. People have scars from all kinds of things, but mine tell a story of strength. Normally I would never do something like that, but I was with my husband and I thought, ‘I’m normal and I’m beautiful – I’m going to do this!’ My husband and my daughters were proud, and it made me feel normal. All survivors just want to feel normal.”
There are many other ways Kim now celebrates being a survivor. She considers the day she had her double mastectomy as the day she started surviving cancer, so every year, on the anniversary of her surgery, she and her family have a big celebration – birthday style! After all, it is a birthday: Kim gets to celebrate life and that she is surviving.
Kim also shares her story freely in the hope that others will see those pink ribbons every October and remember that breast cancer can affect anyone. She encourages other survivors to share their stories as well, to spread awareness and to put faces on the statistics.
“Every pink ribbon you see represents a personal story. No matter the stage of cancer, or what treatment you went through, tell your story. It will help the person you tell. Live on to inspire.”
