
Kimberly, San Diego
“On April 7th, two weeks after my two young boys started online learning and three weeks into a statewide lockdown, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I couldn’t feel a lump! How was this possible?! I had gone to see my doctor for my yearly exam, and had my first mammogram. I’m 41, without a family history of BC and this cancer was an aggressive form. I was given the diagnosis over Zoom, and was tasked with building a medical team from my couch—while trying to teach my four-year-old to spell his name. I didn’t have enough information to Google except “breast cancer” (which is horrifying once you actually have it).
“During the hysteria of being told staying home would save my life from COVID, I now had to leave my home and go into a hospital to save my life. I started chemotherapy and immunotherapy within a month. In order to start and continue treatment, I had to be tested for COVID every 14 days. I always got my results within 24 hours. I had chemo every two weeks, and my follow-up MRI on June 25 showed the tumor had melted away. The chemo worked. I had a lumpectomy on July 9th and the biopsies showed I had had a ‘complete pathological response.’ I was cancer free. I still can’t believe it.”
Kimberly, 41
San Diego
8/27/20
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