Well before the age when mammograms are recommended, Kimberly McDaniel, 33, discovered a lump in her breast. She was pregnant with her third child and because of her youth, she brushed it off.
"I always do self-breast exams. I found out I was pregnant with my third child at the end of July (2019) and I hadn't been doing them like I should. In November I did a self-exam and I felt a knot. It was about the size of a dime and it moved."
"I thought it was probably a cyst and I chalked it up to that and pregnancy hormones," she said.
In March, Kim gave birth to Collyns, a baby sister to join big brothers Cannon, 7, and Connor, 3. Between the responsibilities of having a new baby and going back to work at CHRISTUS St. Michael Health System as a registered nurse in the Women and Children's Department, the lump in her breast was far from her mind.
In mid-May, Kim did another self-exam and found that the knot had grown substantially. It was now about the size of a golf ball. Because she was breastfeeding, she thought it might be a clogged milk duct or mastitis, two issues common in breastfeeding mothers.
Near the end of June, Kim asked her husband Braden to feel the mass.
"It was a hard mass on the right side under my armpit. He told me I needed to get it checked out," she said.
The next day Kim called her OB doctor for an appointment that day. The doctor told her while a woman is lactating it's hard to tell what's going from an exam, so he sent her for a mammogram.
"Of course they saw the mass on the mammogram. They went ahead and biopsied it and sent it off. The doctor told me if he was a betting man, he thought there was a 90% chance it was benign. It was going to take about 10 days to get the results back, so I went back to work that day very hopeful," Kim said.
But when the news came in about a week later, it wasn't good. Kim was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma.
Things started to move quickly after that. She got an appointment at Sammons Cancer Center in Dallas. By July, she was going through a battery of tests for determining the best course of treatment: MRIs, a PET scan and a test on her heart because of the type of chemotherapy they were thinking of using.
On Aug. 10, Kim began chemo - four treatments, one every other week. At the end of September, she started a second round of chemo with a different drug - each Monday for 12 weeks.
"When I first found out I had cancer I was stressed. I'm a planning person. I need to know what to expect. Once we had a plan in place, I felt relieved. I felt like I could handle it once I knew what was going to happen. The part where I was getting tests run was very stressful. Once I knew the stage and treatment plan I felt a whole lot better. I'm not going to say I don't have my moments, but I'm very hopeful. I'm on so many prayer lists," she said.
So far, treatment hasn't been too bad.
"I have a few women I talk to that have been through this and on the same treatment, and they've prepared me for what to expect. I'm a little more tired than normal but I've had no nausea or vomiting. I've had a little bit of bone pain but all of my side effects have been very manageable," she said.
"The girls I talk to and my doctor are amazed at how well I've been doing. I know a lot of people aren't that blessed to go through it without side effects. I haven't had to miss a day that I was scheduled to work yet."
Kim said the toughest side effect so far has been losing her hair.
"I prepared for it. I went and got wigs that matched my original hair so I have two wigs that both look like my hair. There's something about chopping your hair off and shaving your head. It's a mental ballgame," she said.
Kim makes it a point to keep her friends and family informed. She posts regular updates on her Facebook page.
"I have said from the beginning I'm going to let you know what's happening. I keep people in the loop because I don't want them hearing rumors from someone else. Everybody has been very respectful," she said.
Kim attributes the fact that she's been able to stay so positive and upbeat to her faith in God.
"I have always been a religious person. Going through this I can't even tell you how many signs I've received. There have been days where I was down or depressed and I'd turn on the TV and there would be an advertisement for St. Jude (Children's Research Hospital). I was like 'OK, God. I get it. There are worse things happening than what I'm going through.' I just decided I was going to put my head down and do what I had to do to get through this," she said.
Kim will meet with her surgeon this month to discuss her options. Her plan is a double mastectomy sometime in January. "The fact that we don't have a family history and it's not related to hormones; it would ease my mind to know I took care of it," she said. "I don't want it coming back in the other breast somewhere down the road."
Kim said she sees an opportunity in all that has happened.
"From day one I've said God has a plan and a purpose and I made it my goal to bring awareness. No matter how big or small it is, I'm going to do something good with this."
She said there is a lot of misinformation out there and she wants to help educate both men and women.
"I am 33 and do not have a family history of breast cancer," she said. "There is a misconception if you breastfeed you won't get breast cancer, but I've breastfed all of my children. Breast cancer doesn't discriminate. It doesn't care how old you are, if you're a man or a woman. It's important to educate yourself about self-breast exams and to do them regularly. If you find something, don't hold off on getting it checked out like I did. Go to your doctor."
Kim said she should have seen her doctor months earlier, when she first felt the knot.
"I sat on it for seven months. That's something I beat myself up about at first, but I wouldn't have done chemo while I was pregnant," she said. "I just tell myself it is what it is. I was able to breastfeed my baby for four-and-a-half months before I had to stop. And who knows, if I'd found it sooner maybe I wouldn't have been able to get an appointment with my doctor so quickly and things wouldn't have worked out like they have. It fell together smoothly."