Kimberly Nahm

Survivor

When you get breast cancer, you join a very special club. I made two really special friends during this process and we all met to get our Lupron shots together.

I was diagnosed in July 2002 with stage 3 high-grade invasive ductal carcinoma. I was 33. I had no history of it in my family and I found the lump myself. I’m a registered nurse with a husband who’s a physician, and we found ourselves on the other side of the health care system.

I had a mammogram, ultrasound and biopsy on a Monday and by Friday I was getting chemotherapy. It was a tough road, but along the way I met some really neat people. Three of us had to do Herceptin once our chemo and surgeries were done. We met weekly for six months and then every three weeks after that. We were all on Lupron to keep our ovaries suppressed. All three of us are under 40. I call them my Breast Friends.

Our stories are different; I’m a nurse with no kids, Steph is a corporate woman with two kids, and Andrea is a stay-at-home mom with two kids, so we each had our challenges. We developed a friendship and through the past year, have become a great support through setbacks and disappointments and also through the accomplishments we each have achieved. We even keep up our friendship even now that I had to move away for a while.

No one wants to go through breast cancer, but I’m very fortunate to have made it through with some great women.