Kimberly Leonard

My wife Kim was diagnosed with breast cancer on Monday, August 7.  It will be 4 weeks now on Monday.  It has taken the bulk of that time to get clarity on exactly what the diagnosis is.  We learned quickly that there are lots of different types of breast cancer.  The great news is that what Kim has is not just treatable - but curable.  Kim has triple positive breast cancer on one side.  It is in stage 2b.  That means it has traveled to her lymph node - but no further.  Some of you will know what that means - but most will not.  The key here is that it is curable.  

I am sitting in the Stefanie Spielman center in downtown Columbus writing this.  Today is the start of four months of chemotherapy.  After that is surgery.  After that is radiation.  We are looking at about a year of ongoing treatment.  Those are just the broad strokes of what we understand.  I am fortunate to work from home and that I can stop any travel for the next half year or so.  

Kim has been a real "champ" through this.  Her attitude and approach has been really fantastic.  While I can't say that I am surprised, I can say that I know for sure that Kim's attitude and approach has been as asset for both of us.  Ironically, this has afforded Kim and I the  opportunity to spend more time together.  It is not until you go through something like this that you realize that there is just not enough down time in everyday life.  On a humorous note, the doctors have learned that there is no question too small for Kim to ask :).  

I am sorry to all of you who are finding out about this via reading this.  Our focus has been nearly single focused first on understanding what we are dealing with and then getting treatment started.  

I will be using this means to communicate updates as treatment progresses.  I am absolutely going to miss folks on the initial email blast.  Please feel free to forward this as you feel appropriate.  The site is set up so that people can add themselves to the distribution for updates.