Hi everyone. My name is Kimberly. I am 46 years old. I am a mother of four children, Merideth 25, Joshua 22, and my twins, Avery and Alonzo who are 13.
I lost my mother to lung/bone cancer on November 29, 2006. She was dxd. on 11/4/2006. She died three weeks after she found out she had cancer.
On November 4, 2007 (yes, one year later) I was a pretty healthy 42 year old woman. I worked as HR Manager. November 4th, 2007 I was on my way to a Saints football game and decided to stop at the sporting goods store and grab a jersey. As soon as I pulled into the parking lot my right foot went numb and as soon as I parked my car my whole right side starting shaking. I had a grand mal seizer right there in my car, in the parking lot.
Well, lets just say after I got to the hospital, got 2 CT scans the news was: You have two brain tumors and they are not priamary, there is cancer somewhere else. Ok.. three weeks later after many test the dxd was Inoperable Stage 4 metastatic Lung/Brain Cancer NS, adenocarcinoma. By December of 2007 I had a port inserted, the BEAM ME UP SCOTTY button as I called it. 18 rounds of cyberknife radiation to the brain... January 2008 I started 39 rounds of radiation to my chest along with two different types of chemo once a week. Basically, my medical team aggressively kicked my butt with treatment expecting me to live maybe 3 months (so I was told 2 years later) I never asked how long I had... I was still grieving the death of my mama and I remembered so vividly the doctors telling my mama she had 8 weeks...she died 2 weeks after that.
Chemo and radiation was hard.. but I survived it. My body finally had enough by July 08.. many hospital stays, blood fusions, low platelettes, you name it... My dr's took me off chemo and put me on TARCEVA in September 2008. My PET SCAN on December 2008 showed NED Now, lets go back to the two brain tumors that radiation did not work on.. Since now I was lung cancer free my brain dr.s did brain surgery on January 2009 to remove the two brain tumors. It left me with a mild drop foot but I survived. March 2009 one tumor came back and I fought it since 2009 with more cyberknife radiation and 18 months of chemo (Avasitin). July 2011 the tumor was still growing and it is in a place that controls the right side of my body. It had to be removed. On August 4th 2011 I underwent the 2nd brain surgery to remove the tumor and it was sucessfull., however I am right now at home recooperating. I was paralyzed for over 7 days on my ride side. But with God's help I am now walking and my right arm is working! This is just a short introduction My journey has been long, but what I do now is share my story to give hope and faith. The Day you are diagnosed with cancer YOU ARE A SURVIVOR. I am a walking miracle. I kept my sense of humor thru it all.. found the blessings in it all.. and happy to be here to share and also be inspired. I'm not the same person anymore.. cancer changed not only my life, but it changed "me".. good and bad. The one thing i believe every person needs after a cancer journey is a complete makeover.. my hair used to be straight.. now its curly.. mouthsores ruined my teeth because I was not able to get dental care due to mouth sores and low platelettes... etc.. How do you start over and gain back what cancer takes from you? I do know I am grateful, thankful and blessed to be here today and I look forward to getting to know all of you.