Beech Tree News Network

Beautiful, friendly, devoted wife, dedicated mother, sweet to everyone that speaks to her. There’s just one mean side to Kim that I know, and it is that she KICKED CANCERS BUTT!
Almost everyone has Facebook these days, most of us, if being honest, can say we are somewhat addicted to it. We learn people’s business, we advertise, we share our family photos and so much more. But have you ever thought that maybe someone’s post on Facebook could lead to you finding out you have cancer? That a post of a friend’s on Facebook possibly saved your life? That’s how Kim’s journey of breast cancer began.
In June of this year (2016), Kim was reading one of her friend’s posts that had been battling breast cancer for over two years. Her friend, which was approximately 38 years old when she found out she had cancer, was bringing awareness to young women about the importance of self-breast examinations.  She told them to check for knots and to get to know your breast and how they should feel. Kim said it dawned on her she had not done a self-breast exam for several months. She wasn’t alarmed because other than her sister having two knots that turned out to be “nothing”, there was no mention or history of breast cancer in her family.(even though they just knew the knots in her sisters breast were cancer, they were not)  But Kim went ahead and followed her friend’s advice and did a self-breast exam. Much to Kim’s surprise, she discovered a knot in her right breast. She wasn’t alarmed but told her husband Kyle, and after reevaluating it, they both told themselves, it was “nothing.”
The knot was always in the back of Kim’s mind, and she said at night she would be laying watching TV and catching herself feeling the knot over and over, this went on for at least a week, still trying to decide was it “something” or was it was “nothing” like her sisters?  Finally, after two weeks, she called her gynecologist and made an appointment.
Unfortunately, her regular gynecologist couldn’t be there the day of her appointment, so she had to see a doctor that she had never seen before. This broke my heart when she told me this because gynecologist is not fun to go to when they are your regular doctor, but to have to be concerned about a knot and then to see a strange doctor, a double whammy. As Kim had thought, the doctor felt her breast and thought it was “nothing” but went ahead and scheduled a baseline mammogram anyway.  Just too get an idea of what her breast looked like for future mammogram comparison.  She thought it was just dense breast tissue.
 Kim battled herself over and over while waiting for the day of her appointment for the mammogram. She couldn’t decide whether to cancel the appointment or keep it. She could come up with numerous excuses to cancel; the kids were out of school for the summer and it would take time away from them, they hadn’t met their huge deductible, it would possibly be a waste of money, the doctor thought it was “nothing” all excuses we have all used at one time or another when it comes to our health. But Kyle convinced her to go ahead and keep the appointment because if she didn’t, she would drive herself insane always wondering if her “nothing” was really “something.” He said “Since you have doubts about whether or not to go, I feel you need to go. If you go, and they say it’s nothing then it’s over, and we move on, but if you don’t go, we will constantly be wondering.”
The day finally arrived, and Kim attended her appointment as scheduled. The lady that was doing her mammogram had been doing it for 30 years. She was reading the order and asked her if she’d ever found anything in her breast, and Kim said: “yes, that’s why I’m here.” The lady that was going to do the mammogram asked if she could feel the knot and Kim said: "sure, why not." (Yes, she still has a sense of humor). Kim asked her if she could feel it and she said yes. She then left the room to talk to the radiologist.  She came back and said they wanted her to have a diagnostic mammogram that day (this is a step above a routine mammogram) instead of just a regular mammogram. The nurse had to call the doctor (gynecologist) to have the order written for a diagnostic mammogram and Kim said she could hear her talking on the phone to the doctor saying “well the radiologist wants to do a diagnostic one.” Kim said you could tell the doctor just still really thought it was nothing. Finally, after persuasion, they received the order and proceeded with the diagnostic mammogram. At that point, Kim said she felt like maybe there was something now. After doing two sets of pictures, they decided to do an ultrasound that same day. Like that wasn’t enough already, after the ultra sound, (which was done on both breast), the radiologist wanted even more images. Kim at that point, said “this is not just “nothing.”
The radiologist then came to see Kim himself. He explained that they had seen something in her right breast. He said it wasn’t scary, but it wasn’t safe either; not very comforting. He explained that most radiologists would just push it aside and say watch it and we will recheck it in 6 months, but thankfully, this radiologist wasn’t comfortable with doing that. He wanted to proceed with a biopsy. The radiologist confirmed the knot was nothing as suspected BUT the problem was the cancer was behind the knot.
After the radiologist left the room and Kim were waiting to be taken for her biopsy, she said she just sat in the room and tried to gather herself. So much had happened in such a short amount of time that obviously is going to change her life forever. She had been told so much and was trying to comprehend it all by herself because no one had gone with her because they were told: “it was NOTHING.”  Kim said the scripture Philippians 4:7 “And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (KJV) kept going through her mind and it brought her such peace. God had now given her the peace she needed to proceed with the task at hand, which was having the biopsy.

On the following Friday, she returned to Bowling Green for a stereotactic biopsy. It took about a week for her to get the call with the biopsy results. During this time, the clock seemed to stand still. Trying to move on with life as normal as possible, Kim took the kids places and tried to occupy her mind but every time the phone rang, she thought was “this is it, this is them.” And sure enough, while she had her son and his friend at Dinosaur World, the call came in. It always happens at the worst times right?
The ob/gyn called her and said it was carcinoma, but she said it was pre-cancerous. Kim was confused at this point because carcinoma is a type of cancer, but yet the doctor is saying “pre” cancerous. While taking this information in, Kim said her brain just got so fuzzy and was catching bits and pieces and became so overwhelmed that she couldn’t even think of questions to ask. I’ve never dealt with any of this but I know that’s exactly the way I would be at this point; basically in shock.
Kim let me know that she hadn’t cried much at all to this point. She had kept it all together and stayed pretty positive. But today, today was her breaking point. Here she is, trying not to let the kids that were with her know at this point what had just happened so she’s turning the rear view mirror away from herself while driving so she can let the tears flow. She was determined not to ruin the kids day out, as I can tell from the short amount of time I’ve known Kim, as always, she put her family first. She cried all the way from Cave City to Bowling Green where she picked up the phone and called her husband and broke the news to him.
At this point, they hadn’t told very many people at all what they were going through because they thought that crazy phrase “it was nothing.” Some of their kids were at camp during the time Kim got the news, but when they arrived home, Kim and Kyle decided it was time to tell the kids what was happening because she was going to have to see a surgeon next. Their reaction was as suspected; they were scared. They had seen Kim’s friend Andrea suffer from this horrific disease and they had lots of questions and fears they needed answers to. Kim and Kyle did everything they could to reassure the kids it was going to be fine. They told the kids it was no big deal that maybe a small surgery but it was precancerous and it was going to be fine. Making sure their kids felt safe and comforted was their first concern.
Two weeks later (about a month in a half after this whole ordeal started when the knot was found) she had to see the surgeon, Dr. Chambers.  Dr. Chambers came in told Kim she wanted her to tell her what she knew about her cancer. Kim was blown away by the statement because according to the ob/gyn, she “didn’t have cancer, she had pre-cancer.” But very quickly Dr. Chambers told her “yes, yes you do have cancer.”  She had DCIS, which is Ductal carcinoma in situ. When I did some research on DCIS, I see, exactly what Kim had said, that it is noninvasive meaning it hasn’t spread out of the milk duct to invade other parts of the breast, stage zero (earliest stage). Dr. Chambers was amazed that Kim even found this because usually it’s not found until it’s broken out and you’re dealing with other treatment options besides surgery. Kim told Dr. Chambers that the knot is what had alarmed her. What’s strange to me is that it wasn’t the knot that had cancer the cancer was actually was behind the knot. Dr. Chambers informed Kim that this cancer had probably been there since she was in her 20’s. She told Kim it was absolutely an intervention that this was found. She said you just don’t usually find this in the first mammogram, usually not until someone is close to the age of 40.Kim knew without a doubt that God had intervened. With a miracle from God, Kim found this knot and pursued medical help and without doubt, saved herself from a much worse outcome. 
The plan of action was looking like it was going to be a lumpectomy and radiation for six to eight weeks. But the doctor was not satisfied with just this one test (mammogram), so she wanted to do a breast MRI. They proceeded a week later to do an MRI on her right breast just to be sure there wasn’t anything else in the right breast and make sure nothing was in the left breast.  At this point, Kim said they told the kids what was going on now with a little more detail but yet still being as low key as possible, and they decided it was time to tell more people and start a prayer chain because being the strong Christians they are, they know prayer can work miracles and the more prayer warriors you have, the better.

When she was at Dr. Chambers office, she was asked to do the blood test called BRCA 1 and BRCA 2. This test is performed to look for genetic mutations and see if a person carries a gene that carries breast cancer. When Kim shared this with me, because of my lack of knowledge with breast cancer, I had no idea there was a gene a person can carry that can carry breast cancer. After I researched this, I found out from the cancer.gov website that  “ By contrast, according to the most recent estimates, 55 to 65 percent of women who inherit a harmful BRCA1 mutation and around 45 percent of women who inherit a harmful BRCA2 mutation will develop breast cancer by age 70 years.”
At this point, Kim said she began the daily crying. She said she was more sad than scared. She was sad that her family had to go through this, she was sad that Kyle was going to have to go through this and the whole thing of not knowing what the outcome was going to entail.
Finally, the test results from the MRI came back and the good news, the left breast was clean. But on the other hand, the doctor said there was a bit more “quite a bit more” were her exact words. Kim said she would never forget those words. Now is when Kim said she just knew she was going to lose her right breast but she went into survival mode and just wanted to know what had to be done to get the cancer out and rid her of this horrific demon. She informed Kyle that she wanted both her breast taken off. She said too many times she’d heard of women only had the breast with the cancer in it removed, and then years later the cancer is found in the other. So she had made up her mind, very quickly, that if any way possible, both of her breast would be removed.
Still awaiting the blood test results, they finally came back after the full two weeks. So once again, she heads back to Dr. Chambers office. The blood test came back negative; Kim does not carry the gene. What a blessing. But the bad news is, the cancer was 10cm, 4” in her right breast (half her right breast). So, without doubt, the right breast needed to come off. At this point, Kim told the doctor she wanted to remove them both, and the doctor had no problem with that at all, she one hundred percent backed Kim on her decision. So, Kim has gone from a possible lumpectomy to removing both breasts in less than two months. August 12, 2016, was the day that Kim’s life forever changed. This day, she lost both of her breasts.
Dr. Salameh was whom Dr. Chambers recommended as Kim’s reconstruction doctor. He was there during surgery to begin the reconstruction. He, along with Dr. Chambers worked diligently to remove this demon from Kim. Kim said she chose to do the reconstruction because she felt like she had lost all control. She felt this was a way for her to take back some kind of control. Kim is still completing her reconstruction and has two more surgeries to complete this process.

Faith, who could get through something like this without faith in God? That’s a question I ask myself about everything in life, but so much so in a situation such as cancer. Kim said without her faith she couldn’t imagine fighting this battle. Her faith has grown so much stronger during this process. She said her only hope from all this is that she can help someone else that might be facing the same thing. She said she could honestly say she never said: “why me Lord.” She said God was in control of all of this and that’s what made it so much easier for her because God was beside her through every step.
I want to thank Kim for trusting me enough to share her story. I have so much respect for her and the way she handled this battle that God laid before her. She is such an inspiration, and I wish her love and success in her continued journey.

About Debby:
In 2014, I felt a calling from God to change the course of my photography. Here is a little info on Today's Miracle Photography:

Memories last forever; I have a deep passion for photography and writing, and have had for many years. I wanted to tie these two together and use my passion for the glory of God. When our granddaughter Lexi (not by blood) was born, and shortly passed, I felt God wanted me to share her story, from that point on, I've felt that calling. To reach out to people that have had miracles performed in their lives, to bring awareness to terminally ill people, people that have lost loved ones, people that struggle with addictions, just various aspects of life that God works miracles in.
God works miracles everyday, share yours with me and lets share it with the world. I believe these people I photo shoot and write about need prayer and the best way to start a prayer chain and praise God, is with a big group of people that will share all over the world. No miracle is to great or small to praise God for.

I have a page on Facebook named Today's Miracle Photography, please follow me there to capture these incredible people's story's and photos as well.

Debby Lanham