8 min
Being Your Own Advocate Your Stories: Conquering Cancer
-
- Relationships
Kimberly Irvine was used to taking care of the people she loved. Conquering breast cancer – twice – forced the young mom to learn how to take care of herself in a whole new way. In a conversation with fellow philanthropist Riccardo Braglia, Kimberly shares how cancer changed her family and offers advice for patients who meet cancer in the prime of their lives.
TRANSCRIPT
PRESENTER 1: Life doesn't stop for months and dads when they hear those dreaded words, "You have cancer." But how do you take care of your family while searching for your own care team, scheduling doctor appointments, and dealing with the side effects of treatment? Kimberly Irvine has some tried and true advice. She was a young mother of two when she conquered breast cancer twice. In this episode of Your Stories, Kimberly talks to her friend and fellow research advocate, Riccardo Braglia, about why it's OK, even necessary, for patients to put themselves first during treatment and offers tips on answering the tough questions children have about cancer.
RICCARDO BRAGLIA: Kimberly, tell me about your story.
KIMBERLY IRVINE: I was initially diagnosed when I was 31 years old. I remember hearing those words, "You have breast cancer," and the first thought was, I knew I was going to have to have to go through surgery. And there's many different options. You can choose to reconstruct, or you can choose not to. And in my situation, it was kind of a wait-and-see approach. I had to reach out and navigate with the physicians, the health care team. I had no idea who those members of my health care team were going to be. I learned very quickly that I was the CEO of that health care team. Of course, they can give recommendations to me, but I was the person that was going to ultimately make those decisions.
I went through surgeries, radiation, chemotherapy, and about three and a half years later the disease came back when I was 35 years old. I then endured more surgeries, chemotherapy, and hormonal therapy. And today I'm happy to say that I'm 42 years old, and I am healthy and very blessed.
RICCARDO BRAGLIA: This journey through cancer-- there is also another issue that patients, and the caregiver, and the family member have to face which is not just relating to the choice of what treatment. But there are many other things to tell your kids. That was a big challenge.
KIMBERLY IRVINE: When I was first diagnosed, my daughter was six, and my son was four. At that age, if they see you lose your hair they think, Mommy's sick. The second diagnosis-- I was 35. They were 10 and eight. Well, life was very different because they started to understand the difference between life and death. I had questions like, hey, am I going to catch this? Did I do something wrong? Is that why Mommy got cancer?
Those are things that I just didn't really know how to answer. I had to educate myself. Now here we are. I'm 42. My daughter is 17. My son is 15, and we're in a completely different paradigm in terms of now their concerns are, gosh, is it going to recur for you? And then the biggest concern is, am I going to get cancer?
I had two situations recently with each of my children. My daughter one day had come into a room, and she was crying. And she said, oh my gosh, mom. I feel this lump in my breast, and I think I have cancer. And I just kind of sit there for a minute. Then I thought to myself, you're 17 years old. How do you even have to think, the first thing is I have cancer?
And we had a doctor check her out, and she was fine, but it just really allowed me to understand that perspective of that fear just doesn't leave them. And then yesterday I was sitting at dinner, and I got a text from my son. And it was the same kind of thing. It was, Mom, I have this bump on my head, and I think I have cancer. So that really does affect our family, and I'm 10 years out from my first diagnosis. And that fear, and that anxiety, and that uncertainty never goes away.
R
Kimberly Irvine was used to taking care of the people she loved. Conquering breast cancer – twice – forced the young mom to learn how to take care of herself in a whole new way. In a conversation with fellow philanthropist Riccardo Braglia, Kimberly shares how cancer changed her family and offers advice for patients who meet cancer in the prime of their lives.
TRANSCRIPT
PRESENTER 1: Life doesn't stop for months and dads when they hear those dreaded words, "You have cancer." But how do you take care of your family while searching for your own care team, scheduling doctor appointments, and dealing with the side effects of treatment? Kimberly Irvine has some tried and true advice. She was a young mother of two when she conquered breast cancer twice. In this episode of Your Stories, Kimberly talks to her friend and fellow research advocate, Riccardo Braglia, about why it's OK, even necessary, for patients to put themselves first during treatment and offers tips on answering the tough questions children have about cancer.
RICCARDO BRAGLIA: Kimberly, tell me about your story.
KIMBERLY IRVINE: I was initially diagnosed when I was 31 years old. I remember hearing those words, "You have breast cancer," and the first thought was, I knew I was going to have to have to go through surgery. And there's many different options. You can choose to reconstruct, or you can choose not to. And in my situation, it was kind of a wait-and-see approach. I had to reach out and navigate with the physicians, the health care team. I had no idea who those members of my health care team were going to be. I learned very quickly that I was the CEO of that health care team. Of course, they can give recommendations to me, but I was the person that was going to ultimately make those decisions.
I went through surgeries, radiation, chemotherapy, and about three and a half years later the disease came back when I was 35 years old. I then endured more surgeries, chemotherapy, and hormonal therapy. And today I'm happy to say that I'm 42 years old, and I am healthy and very blessed.
RICCARDO BRAGLIA: This journey through cancer-- there is also another issue that patients, and the caregiver, and the family member have to face which is not just relating to the choice of what treatment. But there are many other things to tell your kids. That was a big challenge.
KIMBERLY IRVINE: When I was first diagnosed, my daughter was six, and my son was four. At that age, if they see you lose your hair they think, Mommy's sick. The second diagnosis-- I was 35. They were 10 and eight. Well, life was very different because they started to understand the difference between life and death. I had questions like, hey, am I going to catch this? Did I do something wrong? Is that why Mommy got cancer?
Those are things that I just didn't really know how to answer. I had to educate myself. Now here we are. I'm 42. My daughter is 17. My son is 15, and we're in a completely different paradigm in terms of now their concerns are, gosh, is it going to recur for you? And then the biggest concern is, am I going to get cancer?
I had two situations recently with each of my children. My daughter one day had come into a room, and she was crying. And she said, oh my gosh, mom. I feel this lump in my breast, and I think I have cancer. And I just kind of sit there for a minute. Then I thought to myself, you're 17 years old. How do you even have to think, the first thing is I have cancer?
And we had a doctor check her out, and she was fine, but it just really allowed me to understand that perspective of that fear just doesn't leave them. And then yesterday I was sitting at dinner, and I got a text from my son. And it was the same kind of thing. It was, Mom, I have this bump on my head, and I think I have cancer. So that really does affect our family, and I'm 10 years out from my first diagnosis. And that fear, and that anxiety, and that uncertainty never goes away.
R
8 min