Woman up for battle with Stage IV breast cancer
BUCYRUS - Kim Rudd wishes she would have found her breast cancer sooner.
“I am a stage-four,” she said. “That means it’s not curable, but it can be stopped.”
October marks the third Breast Cancer Awareness Month since she learned she had stage-iv invasive ductal carcinoma, an advanced-stage breast cancer.
Every autumn she reads about survivors who have beat their breast cancer. That’s not a story she will ever be able to tell. But that’s OK, as long as she never lets cancer beat her.
“Years ago,” she said, “stage-four was basically a death sentence.”
‘A hard lump’
Rudd lives just around the corner from the rural home where her mother grew up.
“I’m a Wynford graduate,” she said. “I’ve never left Crawford County.”
Of all the family stories she heard growing up, none of them involved cancer. The terrible disease was one of the farthest things from her mind her entire life.
Her career eventually led her to the Crawford County Board of Elections, where she serves as deputy director. Long days during election season made her chair seem more uncomfortable, but a bigger issue was an increasing pain in her back and neck.
“We were treating the back pain,” Rudd said.
Doctors were a little confused, since nothing usual seemed to be causing the discomfort. Her breasts? They felt fine.
Then one day she decided to try a self-exam. She found nothing on her chest, but something unusual had grown under one of her armpits.
“It was a hard lump,” Rudd said.
Breast cancer spread to spine
Her doctors quickly transferred Rudd to the James Cancer Hospital at The Ohio State University where she received a multitude of tests.
“I was in the James for 11 days, flat on my back,” Rudd said. “I couldn’t move.”
There she learned the cancer had spread to her spine and one of her shoulders. She was told the disease has spread so far surgery was no longer an option.
“The doctor said it would be like putting a nail in wet drywall,” Rudd said. “Everything around it had been affected.”
She was treated at Stefanie Spielman Comprehensive Breast Center, where she learned she had the same form of cancer that took Spielman’s life in 2009.
But doctors have used the decade since Spielman’s death to flip the script on invasive ductal carcinoma, giving patients today the gift of life the Spielman family has do desperately wanted for them.
“I am so grateful for them,” Rudd said. “They are just so knowledgeable and kind and caring.”
Routine breast exams critical to detection
Rudd wishes her breast cancer would have never reached stage-iv. Early detection, she now realizes, is critical.
“That would be my advice,” she said. “Everybody should get their mammograms and do monthly self exams. I didn’t do that routinely enough.”
According to the American Cancer Society, women have a 13% chance of becoming diagnosed with breast cancer — that means one of every eight women will get the disease.
Several women work in the elections office. At least a dozen more work throughout the rest of the county courthouse. An untold number of women visit the building every day.
“Keep up on your doctors’ visits,” Rudd tells them. “I know life can get in the way.”
She urges everyone to maintain a family doctor, and to call them if anything changes in or around their breasts.
Family history can give every woman a better idea if they’re high-risk for breast cancer.
“I have two daughters,” Rudd said. “That was a huge relief when the genetic doctor said my form of cancer is not hereditary.”
Recent scare overcome
The last two years were fairly normal for Rudd, at least as normal as they were ever expected to get.
She drives to Columbus once every three weeks for another round of treatment. She will have to keep receiving either chemotherapy or take a chemomaintenance drug the rest of her life.
She had to stop taking that medication over the summer, though, because it was affecting her heart. The cancer only needed an eight-week window to come out of remission.
By last Wednesday, her doctors ad some good news: the new drugs and the updated diet had made her cancer go back into dormancy.
It’s a battle she knows she will have to continue the rest of her life, but she’s up for it, especially since she has so many other fighting along with her.
“I have such a tremendous support group,” Rudd said. “I have great prayer warriors. There are people I don’t even know. And I have my husband.” ztuggle@gannett.com 419-564-3508
Twitter: @zachtuggle