Finding Purpose Amid Health Challenges
- "Love and Marriage: Huntsville" reality TV star Kimmi Scott, 34, is being honored by the American Cancer Society amid her own "tough" breast cancer journey. Since her diagnosis last year, she's used her platform to inspire other women facing the disease.
- Scott was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer in June 2022.
- Triple-negative breast cancer means the cancer is not being fueled by any of the three main types of receptorsestrogen, progesterone, or the HER2 protein. This means certain common therapies won't work. Chemotherapy is typically the treatment and there are several options.
- Scott was diagnosed after she felt a lump in her breast. She’s using her story to raise awareness about the importance of self exams and regular screenings.
Scott is being honored later this summer by the American Cancer Society. She has become an advocate for women facing breast cancer by sharing her own journey. The honor follows a somber moment for the reality TV star as she laid her father to rest.
Read MoreView this post on Instagram
Scott is a mom, a registered nurse, and a real estate broker. She's also a regular on reality show "Love and Marriage: Huntsville." The show focuses on successful African American couples confronting everyday challenges related to their marriage and is based in Huntsville, Alabama.The popular cast member was thrown a curveball when she was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer.
"It took me a few days to wrap my head around it," Scott told People Magazine.
Scott's Breast Cancer Journey
It was in June of 2022 when Scott's life took a turn while watching basketball with her husband Maurice, who also appears on the "Love and Marriage" show. She said as she rubbed her right breast, she discovered a lump.
"As a nurse, I was like, 'Eh maybe I should check further," she said.
She gave herself a self-exam to thoroughly check her breasts for anything unusual. Women are encouraged to do regular self-exams to become familiar with how their breasts feel normally, so when something unusual like a lump does form it can be easily detected. A self-exam includes pressing your fingertips along your breast in a circular motion.
Dr. Elizabeth Comen explains how to do a self breast exam.
"For some women that means going to their doctor and walking through what a self-breast exam looks like, so they know what normal breast tissue feels like so if they do feel something abnormal whether it's a lump or discharge from the nipple they know what to ask and what to look for," SurvivorNet medical advisor Dr. Elizabeth Comen said.
As Scott started examining her breasts, she found another lump.
"I found a second lump under my right arm. So that was probably when I actually started getting really worried because I understand as a clinician that once cancer sometimes gets into your lymph nodes, that's kind of the highway to the rest of your body," Scott added.
She soon went to see her doctor for a mammogram which screens breast tissues for anything abnormal. About a week later, she was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer.
"I was devastated, you know, pretty much every bit of clinical experience that I had left in me in that moment. I was just crushed," Scott said.
Scott's type of breast cancer is more aggressive but fortunately for women with triple-negative breast cancer, there are treatment options.
Dr. Elizabeth Comen explains how triple negative breast cancer may be treated.
Triple-negative breast cancer means that your cancer is not being fueled by any of the three main types of receptors estrogen, progesterone, the HER2 protein. Because of this, the cancer won't respond to certain targeted therapies including hormone therapy or HER2-targeted agents like Herceptin. Chemotherapy is typically the treatment and there are several options.
"Triple-negative breast cancers are most responsive to chemotherapy at the outset," Dr. Comen said.
"Of course, there are many other options that a woman may be able to explore, including immunotherapies as part of a clinical trial and other targeted therapies that may be appropriate, depending on what clinical trials are available where she’s being treated," Dr. Comen continued.
Scott's treatment began shortly after her diagnosis. She began 20 weeks of very aggressive chemotherapy that concluded in December 2022.
"As a woman, I feel I'm pretty strong mentally, psychologically, physically. I was in pretty good health at the end of the day, but those medications, they will just beat you up. I was exhausted," she said of her cancer treatment.
Scott then received a PET scan that showed all of the cancer was gone. She then underwent a breast-conserving surgery called a lumpectomy. This procedure is surgery to remove a cancer or abnormal tissue from the breast. It's known as “breast-conserving surgery” because, unlike a mastectomy, only the tumor and some of the surrounding tissue is removed rather than the entire breast.
View this post on Instagram
After receiving a lumpectomy, she started 36 rounds of radiation treatment. During radiation, high-energy beams are aimed at cancer cells designed to kill them. She completed radiation this past April.
The side effects of cancer treatment can be one of the toughest parts of the journey as many cancer warriors know all too well. For Scott, she admitted she often felt sick.
"The nauseousness of it all is just overwhelming, the numbness and tingling like in my fingertips and toes, I was extremely short of breath from a little bit of lung damage, it affects your taste buds and there were so many foods I couldn't tolerate I just felt sick,” she explained.
Scott was initially reluctant to bring her cancer journey onto the reality TV show, but her husband encouraged her to do so. In the end, she's glad she did because she believes she's able to encourage other women battling breast cancer.
"I would've never thought that I would've been given some platform to help the next woman. The amount of people that have told me that my situation has inspired them to actually go get a mammogram is incredible," Scott said.
More on Triple Negative Breast Cancer
- More Than 80% of Women With Early-Stage Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Experienced a Prolonged Event-Free Survival With Keytruda Plus Chemotherapy Regimen
- Triple-Negative Breast Cancer More Deadly Among Black Women, According to New Research from Washington University School of Medicine
- Chemo for Triple Negative Breast Cancer
- Immunotherapy and Triple Negative Breast Cancer
- In Triple Negative Breast Cancer, New Drug Trodelvy Extends Life
- Chemo Plus Immunotherapy for Metastatic Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
What To Ask Your Doctor
If you have been diagnosed with breast cancer, you may have questions about how to keep your strength through treatment. Here are a few questions to help you begin the conversation with your doctor:
- What treatment will I be receiving?
- What side effects are associated with this treatment?
- Are there steps I can take in my daily life to help minimize these side effects?
- What physical activity routine do you recommend for me during treatment?
- Do you have recommendations for someone who doesn't particularly enjoy exercise?
- Can you recommend a dietician who can help me with healthy eating tips and maintaining a healthy weight?
- I've been having trouble sleeping, do you have any treatment recommendations?
Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.