Help Kim Beat Breast Cancer
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I am a mother to the most beautiful 3 year old girl named Lia and I was lucky enough to marry the most wonderful man and love of my life just 2 years before she was born. Life was perfect, we had everything we ever wanted, and I was just getting settled into the perfect role as a Teacher-Librarian at two incredible schools and we just purchased our forever home when everything came to a scheeching hault. On Feburary 22nd 2017, two days before my 34th birthday, when I was diagnosed with triple negative stage 2 grade 3 breast cancer (TNBC). I went through 6 rounds of high dose chemothearpy and then had a mastecomy on August 10th. The mastecomy was supposed to be the beginning of the end of this journey but when I got the pathology results of the tumour it was anything but.
After carefully examining and testing my tumour it was found that I actually had a extremely rare and aggressive type of breast cancer that occurs in only 1% of breast cancer diagnoses, called metaplastic breast cancer (MpBC). My cancer had no definite response to the chemothearpy, meaning that the cancer cells were still active and that my cancer was now considered "chemo resistant" and classified at Stage 3 Grade 3. Around the same time I received this news lymph nodes in my neck became inflammed and after some testing it was discovered that the cancer had spread further to my lymph nodes in my neck which led my doctors to tell me that I was now considered Stage 4. In a span of 7 months I went from being stage 2 to stage 4 and my doctors continue to worry that the the aggressiveness of the cancer will soon lead to tumours some where else in my body that they won't be able to treat with chemo.
After all this devastating news we finally got a ray of hope from my radiation oncologist who got in touch with an ENT suergon who agreed to remove the affected nodes in my neck. I also had a PET scan that was normal, apart from the affected lymph nodes. Which means that as of right now there are no other tumours to worry about.
Now that my neck nodes and lymph nodes under my arm have been removed the next step will be to have have 33 rounds of radiation with the hopes that this will kill any lingering cancer cells in the immidate area. But even though this type of cancer generally responds well to radiation we have no way of knowing for sure if any rogue cells have gotten futher into my system and it is that unknown that has lead me to do some extensive research on this type of cancer.
During my reseach I came across a registered non-profit group in the USA decicated to MpBC and they work closely with doctors with experience in this type of cancer (MpBC Global Alliance ). After making contact with them they recommeded that I go to see one of those doctors to get another opinion on some treatment options to try to elimated those rogue cells, that do not seem to be available here in Canada yet. Any treatement that I may decide to get in the USA will not be fully covered by MCP (if at all). It is my hope and my family's hope to raise the funds to go to Houston, Texas in January to meet with these doctors and put a plan in place to support my continued recovery from this terribly disease.
Please help me reach my goal to see these doctors and receive treatment for this rare form of breast cancer. Your support will help me gain back my life and enable me to continue to be here for my beautiful daughter for many years to come. Thank you.
After carefully examining and testing my tumour it was found that I actually had a extremely rare and aggressive type of breast cancer that occurs in only 1% of breast cancer diagnoses, called metaplastic breast cancer (MpBC). My cancer had no definite response to the chemothearpy, meaning that the cancer cells were still active and that my cancer was now considered "chemo resistant" and classified at Stage 3 Grade 3. Around the same time I received this news lymph nodes in my neck became inflammed and after some testing it was discovered that the cancer had spread further to my lymph nodes in my neck which led my doctors to tell me that I was now considered Stage 4. In a span of 7 months I went from being stage 2 to stage 4 and my doctors continue to worry that the the aggressiveness of the cancer will soon lead to tumours some where else in my body that they won't be able to treat with chemo.
After all this devastating news we finally got a ray of hope from my radiation oncologist who got in touch with an ENT suergon who agreed to remove the affected nodes in my neck. I also had a PET scan that was normal, apart from the affected lymph nodes. Which means that as of right now there are no other tumours to worry about.
Now that my neck nodes and lymph nodes under my arm have been removed the next step will be to have have 33 rounds of radiation with the hopes that this will kill any lingering cancer cells in the immidate area. But even though this type of cancer generally responds well to radiation we have no way of knowing for sure if any rogue cells have gotten futher into my system and it is that unknown that has lead me to do some extensive research on this type of cancer.
During my reseach I came across a registered non-profit group in the USA decicated to MpBC and they work closely with doctors with experience in this type of cancer (MpBC Global Alliance ). After making contact with them they recommeded that I go to see one of those doctors to get another opinion on some treatment options to try to elimated those rogue cells, that do not seem to be available here in Canada yet. Any treatement that I may decide to get in the USA will not be fully covered by MCP (if at all). It is my hope and my family's hope to raise the funds to go to Houston, Texas in January to meet with these doctors and put a plan in place to support my continued recovery from this terribly disease.
Please help me reach my goal to see these doctors and receive treatment for this rare form of breast cancer. Your support will help me gain back my life and enable me to continue to be here for my beautiful daughter for many years to come. Thank you.
Organizer
Kim Green
Organizer
