HealthLinksSC.com | 87 The night before Kitchens was scheduled to see him, a pingpong ball-sized lump materialized in her breast, seemingly out of nowhere. Bellil ordered a PET scan and promised Kitchens that they would find the source of the cancer. Two days later, Bellil’s news hit Kitchens hard: “You have Stage 4 breast cancer. Specifically, HER2+.” Cancer invaded a vast territory in Kitchens’ body: breast, 11 bones, over 20 spots on her sternum, and a tumor in her liver so large that it stretched the lining of the organ. Kitchens started a Facebook page, Donna Carole’s Cancer Journey, to help friends and family stay informed about her condition and treatments. In the five years it’s been up and running, Kitchens’ page has turned into a haven for those struggling with cancer, specifically cancer that is never going to go away. Kitchens recalled the day that it became more than a space to share general information. “I had a wig on, drawn-on brows and ran into an acquaintance who didn’t really know what was going on at the time. I stood there, chatting in the heat, sweating under that wig,” she said. “Shortly afterwards, I saw my reflection in a mirror. My fake hair had rubbed off my fake brows, my fake eyelashes were about to come off and I’d had this fake smile plastered on my face while we were talking. Fake. Fake. Fake. Everything was fake and I wasn’t fine.” Deciding that she couldn’t pretend another moment, she went home and poured her heart out onto her Facebook page. Since that time, Kitchens’ friends, family and people she’s never met read her honest thoughts and feelings about navigating the terrain of her cancer treatment. Stable for five years, Kitchens is pleased to report that her liver and breasts are clear of disease. Cancer is still evident on her bones but is contained and stable. Because the nature of HER2+ is that it often returns in a mutated form, resistant to any medication the patient may be on, Kitchens must submit to multiple scans every three months for life.
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