Kimberly Brown faced a kidney cancer diagnosis right after the birth of her third child. Read her inspiring story about how she is surviving and managing the anxiety of living with kidney cancer.
“I was tired” all the time. Granted, I was taking care of my newborn baby girl so my OBGYN checked my thyroid and when that came back normal, we just chalked it up as being fatigue from being a 37-year old stay-at mom for three children under the age of 5.
When the fatigue persisted for another six months, I finally couldn’t take it anymore and followed up with my primary care doctor for some additional tests. In addition to being “tired,” I could feel a lump on my back when I laid down. Those were my only symptoms. My doctor thought it might be my gallbladder, so she did a CT scan. Similar to so many other stories I have read; my cancer was found accidentally.
The call I’ll always remember. I was sleeping with my baby and I’ll never forget the words she said: “Kim, I’m sorry to tell you over the phone but I really think you have kidney cancer.” That was October 3rd, 2017. On October 27th, I had a partial nephrectomy. I was close to losing my whole kidney due to the location of my tumor, but fortunately they were still able to save part of my kidney. But to be honest, I didn’t care, because what I really wanted was for all of it to be gone.
I was told I might not be able to continue to breastfeed my baby, depending on the stage. Which I know sounds so silly but that was really heartbreaking to me. My first two nights away from my baby girl was while I was recovering in the hospital. My new husband, (married only 14 months when we found out) was my amazing support system, along with my mom and step-mom and two sisters. And guess what, I was still able to breastfeed. I was diagnosed with Stage 1 grade 2 clear cell renal cell carcinoma.
I just had my 3-month follow up scans and I’m happy to say I’m NED! My next follow-up will be in one year. As crazy as this has all been, I am blessed and extremely hopeful. I can say this was a chapter in my book. But the anxiety, the fact that I had cancer will never go away. It’s the new normal my family and I are getting used to. I pray for a cure; early detection is what saved me.
