Kim's Cancer Journey

 February 27, 2025 This was the appointment I had been dreading for several weeks now. This is the appointment which would determine the course of my treatment. I'd read a lot on my own, trying to figure out if a lumpectomy or a mastectomy would be the right way to go to get rid of the cancer. Lumpectomy would involve removing the tumor in my breast. Mastectomy would involve removing all of the breast.  We met with Dr Jennifer Tittensor, oncology surgeon who came highly recommended by everyone I spoke to who has had anything to do with breast cancer. Everyone raves about her and told me she is the best and she is the one you want to see. Jim was with me at this appointment. We met with her and I felt comfortable and confident that she would know the right thing to do. My own personal feelings and the fact that my cancer had been very hard to detect led me to suggest that we do a mastectomy, and not just one side but both. We were concerned whether insurance would cover that, a...

 February 24, 2025 The first appointment I had after receiving my cancer news was with my oncologist, Dr Chipman. First of all, it feels really weird saying that I have an oncologist. To me, cancer is always something that's supposed to happen to older people. People who've lived their life, and their body just breaks down because they're old. I know it happens to people of all ages, I guess I just created this stereotype in my own head out of the fear of hopefully preventing it from happening to me.  Jim came with me to this appointment for which I'm very grateful. We sat in the waiting room for a while, waiting for our turn. I remember watching the stream of people that kept coming in, and leaving the office. True to my stereotype, these were people much older than me and sicker than me. Or at least that's what I said in my own mind. Some of them very likely could have been much closer to my age than I wanted to believe. They came in with the ports and the drains,...

 February 14, 2025 For the last 18 years, Valentine's Day has been different around our house. Maddie was born 5 weeks premature, on Valentine's Day. Labor started very early in the morning so she was bound and determined to be born that day! Amidst all of the Valentine's cards and treats we prepare for the kids to take and trade with their friends at school, I always bake a heart-shaped cake in honor of Maddie for her birthday. This year she turned 18 which meant she is now an adult. We've had to go through the court system to obtain legal guardianship over her so that we retain rights over her medical and personal care. That was inconvenient and a little pricey but the lawyers we worked with were very good to help us get through that process.  I volunteer with the PTA association at the Junior High School to do a weekly fundraiser where we sell suckers during lunch time to the kids. It's been fun to go and watch the interactions and antics of the junior high age, ...

 February 11, 2025 After I got home from the ultrasound, I pulled up my chart online and read Dr Hammond's report. Having information online and ready at the touch of a button is both a blessing and a curse. Sometimes it puts information into our hands too soon.. information that we can't do anything about, rather than allowing us to enjoy blissful ignorance for a bit longer.  I got through all the technical jargon, then read the line: BI-RADS-5: These findings are highly suggestive for malignancy. That took a minute to process. I understood the highly suggestive for malignancy part. I had to look up what BI-RADS-5 meant. BI-RADS (Breast Imaging-Reporting and Data System) 5 is a classification used in breast imaging to indicate findings that are highly suspicious for malignancy. The levels go from 1 to 6. If you're a level six that means you've received a diagnosis. I was just a step below that. At that point I started to get nervous. That's when I begun to think th...

 Jim's work has a nice little kickback through the insurance plan we are on. First more monthly fee, all we have to do is have each member in the family have an annual checkup or get an immunization. And the insurance will kick back $150 per person. Sounds pretty great, especially considering there were eight people in our family when we started this!  December 20, 2024- Jim and I went in for our annual physicals. Everything was great, we answered all the questions correctly, came home feeling like a million bucks. Both of us were the picture of perfect health.. They did tell me I was due for my annual mammogram, so I thought, why not?? I'll get it scheduled. We then went home and filled out the paperwork to receive our $150 per person. Score!! January 23, 2025- went in for my mammogram. These things are never fun.  I'd lost close to 40 lbs in the past year and a half.. and we all know that most of the tissue in our breasts are fat.. so that was one area I had definitely ...