My name is Kimberly Skinner, I have two teenagers, Jalen 16 and Ashai 18. The funds raised will go towards paying medical bills and medication. Also to secure housing for me and my children. I lost my housing because I had to choose medicine over rent .kids things above my own health.
My journey started November 2019. I had been told at a young age to always do your self breast exams. So I would do them every Friday. One Friday after work, I took a shower and felt a lump. You know in health class they would give you rubber silicone breast so you could know what a lump felt like. I was like hmmmm maybe nothing because it really didn’t feel like silicone breast from health class. I work at an urgent care and I am a big jokester. I got to worker and I was like doctor, “ I need you to look at my boobies”! He said, “ Kimi I’m not looking at your boobies”. I’m like, no, I’m serious, I need you
to look at them. He agreed!
Upon examining my breast, he said you definitely have a mass on your left breast. He recommended I get a mammogram that same day. I casually said “ok”. Knowing we had a huge patient load, I
wasn’t going anywhere. My personality won’t let anyone have to pick up my slack or have to do more because of my absence.
Nevertheless, Monday came and he said” I am waiting for your results. I said, “oh I am going to go Friday.” My boss came out and said, OH NO, you are going today.” She called around, and but the
first available appointment was Friday, the day I said I was going.
Wellll a call later The Breast Center said, we have one cancellation, can you be here at 9:15am ( in my head ummmmm nope it’s a 20min drive to the
place). My boss said yes I could and accepted the appointment. I was late but they still saw me. I had the mammogram, and as I already know when you have dense breast you can’t really see much of anything with a mammogram. So, they did the “?(dense breast protocol) I had an ultrasound done. As I laid there looking at the screen, my shoulder on fire because it’s cramping from being locked in one position. I looked over at the screen and said, that’s a lot of blood flow to that mass. The tech and nurse in the room were sure it was a fibroma. Ok cool!
The radiologist brings me into his office to
show me the images. He basically said the same thing or a clogged milk duct. He says let’s do a biopsy, just to confirm. He asked the nurse if it had to be in before noon to be read today? She says yes. So, we are racing the clock. Paperwork sign, numbing, then biopsy.
He says I got a good sample; I’ll just do one instead of taking tissues from multiple places on the mass. He gets done, needle out and I just bleed like a stuck pig. He applied 20 minutes of pressure,
still bleeding. Nurse comes and applied 20 more minutes of pressure. The nurse got me all bandage up and said if we don’t call tomorrow we will call the next day. So I went home with the instructions to wear a snug bra and ice my breast as needed. Take ibuprofen and I will be just fine.
I get a call the following afternoon and says it’s not cancer just a clogged milk duct! See I told you it wouldn’t be cancer! Tears of relief flooded down my cheeks and I told my family and we all said thank you Jesus. Several weeks go by and the mass is still there heat compress and massage was not changing anything in fact it felt bigger and that just didn’t sit well with me.
However, I called a surgeon we refer a lot of our patients to and he said come on in and he will take a look. It speeds really fast from this point on out. Had my appointment my surgeon said don’t know what it is, but I know it’s not supposed to be there!
Let’s get it out and take a look.
Scheduled the surgery and said doctor promise me I won’t have to wait till January 5 to hear something.
He promised, and gave me his cell number. After the surgery, went home to recover. I’m a nervous wreck. I come from a family of mostly healthcare workers....the motto is not to worry until there is
something to worry about. So, I keep telling myself this.
I get a call 12/31/2019 at 9:50pm in the middle of his New Year’s Eve Party..that says Kimi it’s cancer. I don’t know what type or stage.I won’t know until pathology finishes the report.
I was in disbelief. I had been on the other side of giving that news and I now was like howcan someone just drop of a grenade of cancer and move on but I had done it numerous times. (I don’t say grenade any more, I say throwing a stone into your ocean of life..because cancer has a rippling effect) I felt hurt for the patients I had did that too. As we all know life goes on. I put the words cancer away and went on with life and work. I get a call from my surgeon’s office that said I needed to come in. Ok cool! Cancer..AIN’T nobody got time for
that. I am a Single mom of two. I have zero time for down time or even to focus on me. My surgeon called me and said in my office at 2:15pm. I said well
this can’t be good if you’re calling. I get there
and I’m waiting in the waiting room. I’m looking around and I’m thinking do all these people have cancer!! My name is called, I go back and asked to put on this pink vest. I look over after I took
pictures and I see my name and it says Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) how did I get one of the most aggressive breast cancer?!?! and I became numb. I heard Peter, my surgeon come in and say I don’t have to tell you what that it and what it means because I know you already know but I am. You have one of the most aggressive breast cancers. It is HER2- estrogen- progesterone- It’s 2.3cm I’ll get you set up with oncology. He said since you were missed diagnosed in the beginning we are going to go in reverse . I went to have MRI done and lymph nodes in my left axilla lit
up on the MRI..then it was more biopsies..more cancer news. A CT Scan and more biopsies and blood work were like every other day.
Needless to say, my surgeon said I’m going to remove 7 lymphnodes and the sentinel lymph node place your port you will start chemotherapy on January 21, 2020. I went through 4 rounds of
andromycin and cytoxan chemo then 16 rounds of taxol chemo. I had 33 rounds of radiation. Chemo was done 4 days after my 39th birthday which was June 5th. Chemo ended on June 9, 2020. Chemotherapy was so hard! From hair loss to sores in my mouth keeping me from eating. I had severe nausea and vomiting. Steroids put weight on and my bones ached. Chemotherapy damaged my heart. I’m functioning at 67%. Radiation ended in August 2020. Follow up scans revealed I had tumors on both ovaries. Another surgery, this time a total hysterectomy was performed on October 29, 2020 followed by more chemo and radiation. More scans and a new mass at the 10 o’clock spot on my right breast. I had every side effect known to mankind! I’m affectionately called 1% at CCI because if anything had a side effect I was going to have it. I lost all toenails; fingernails turned black and bled. I had mouth sores, horrible constipation diarrhea neuropathy lymphadenopathy and dehydration
that kept me in and out of the ER.
Short version. TNBC stage 12B
chemotherapy, radiation, ovarian cancer chemotherapy and radiation and now for the 3rd time cancer and I are fighting again. And to be BRACA 1&2 negative (no genetic link to cancer) this has been a roller coaster. When scientifically and medically there was no answer. I asked God why....why me. I have prayed since that day Lord, let my life, my diagnosis, my journey have a purpose. Allow me to help someone. Every doctor I encounter state, you have forever changed how I treat and approach masses,I dig a little deeper. My case goes to tumor boards teaching and informing providers. Alpha and Hudson had a Tie The Ribbon Event and asked me to speak. I am not a speaker at all, but I did it. Unknowingly reaching warriors near and far. My oncologist got out the clinic early one week. He was telling me about his visit to Hudson and Alpha hearing a story about a young lady, and how he hoped to be that oncologist. I said, can I tell you something, he said yes. I said, you are that oncologist! It is my story. He said you changed me and he just cried. He said we can’t see cancer
from your seat, you can’t see it from where I am standing, and you can’t see it if I happen to sit in that exact chair. Thank you for giving cancer a human voice.
I had to go to the breast center for a 6 month follow up on the “clogged milk duct” and I said I don’t
know why I am here. I am already in treatment for TNBC and they said we must have called the wrong patient because you don’t have cancer. They reverified my birthday and name, left the room. The radiologist became pale. He said, I am so so so sorry. I simply said just learn not to be in a rush, do your job and uphold the oath you took..to do no harm.
He leaned against the wall and tears ran down his cheeks and he said I promise you I’m forever changed and I will not let this happen ever again...and I’m sorry you have had to pay such a high price. I said, thankfully I have been in healthcare since I was 19 and I also know my body. I
became my own self patient advocate.
Now what keeps me awake at night is the thought of how many African American woman have walked this path. It didn’t know how to be their own advocate. There are huge disparities in healthcare and it’s got change! Do better and be apart of the change.
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