Grace Morales: Hello all, welcome to Employee Podcast, where Costco employees share how their benefits help them through their own unique health challenges. Today we’re joined by Kim Shimamura. Welcome, Kim. We’re so glad to have you. So tell me a little bit more about you.

Kim Shimamura: I am currently working at the Costco in Corona, California. I’ve been with Costco for 35 years. As of right now, I’m the administrative manager inside our Costco. So I get to spend a lot of time talking with our employees, seeing how I can assist the employees in learning about their benefits, or making sure that, if they’re having issues, I can try to take everything that I’ve had to go through and share that information out with them.

Grace Morales: Kim, tell me more about what brings you here today. What’s a story you wanna share with your employees?

Kim Shimamura: The biggest thing is looking at what we have available. Last year, after I got diagnosed with breast cancer, I knew that we had a lot of programs and I was able to utilize those programs. The Second MD came in very handy. It was a great option for us to be able to use.
Our Omada for joint therapy is very good. I have utilized Omada for weight loss. I’ve utilized Omada for hypertension. We have our Second MD, which is a great option to have available.

Grace Morales: Let’s start with Omada. Tell me about how you ended up using them.

Kim Shimamura: About a year and a half ago, two years ago, I injured my knee with taking care of some chickens. And yeah, it’s the worst story in the world. Here I go, hobbling into work.

Grace Morales: And did you get a second opinion at all about your knee injury?

Kim Shimamura: I did get a second opinion. I knew we had our Second MD option. So I figured, hey, it’s not going to cost me anything other than time to see about this option. Aetna called me and said, hey, we see you’re having this issue. Do you want to do a second opinion? I’m like, well that would be great. Let’s get it done.

Grace Morales: What are some ways that you find personally that’s a really great way to learn about your benefits?

Kim Shimamura: Through all the emails that we get sent out to us from our company, I would see that, hey, we have these new programs set up.

Grace Morales: The emails you’re talking about, are those the WITT emails?

Kim Shimamura: Yes, the WHIT emails. Obviously, I know that the podcast exists. I would watch those.

Grace Morales: Would you say that you’ve always been on top of your health, or is this something that you kind of had to get back on the horse, so to speak?

Kim Shimamura: No, I definitely had not been on top of the health. I had not been at my doctor for a little while. So once they pulled up the bloodwork, they’re like, yeah, you got some things that you have to work on.
And then of course, then I got diagnosed with breast cancer by doing my routine mammogram. I had finally gotten in and done that, and then they found a little spot.

Grace Morales: And so you caught it very early, correct?

Kim Shimamura: Yes. Thank goodness it was caught very, very early. I got diagnosed and got the phone call the day before Thanksgiving. Two weeks later, I had an appointment with a breast surgeon, and within a month after that I was in having surgery to have a lumpectomy to take care of that little spot that needed to be removed.

Grace Morales: So I’ve spoken to many other employees, and the thing that’s most– the biggest message I have in common is that Costco is like a family. So I imagine that people were very supportive after you came back to work.

Kim Shimamura: Absolutely. I took about a month off after my surgery just to be able to give myself time to rehab after that, because we do move around a lot at Costco, even in being in management.
Then, to find out how many other employees that had breast cancer, and just sharing our stories and seeing what they had gone through realistically, I realize thank goodness I was absolutely lucky to get it caught extremely early so that I didn’t have to go through the chemo that some of my employees have gone through.
So all I can say is get in there, do your appointments, do your exams, and don’t put it to the side, because the earlier you can get diagnosed, then you can get it taken care of.

Grace Morales: And if there’s one thing you want your fellow coworkers to take away from this podcast, what would it be?

Kim Shimamura: If you’re going through problems, then communicate with your managers or other employees. Because once I had been diagnosed, I found out how many other employees had had breast cancer, and we would have conversations about it. And hey, how you doing? And you’re always checking on the other person to make sure they’re doing good.
But communication is key. And then you can do the research as to, OK, do I want to try this program? Let me try this program. And it’s not going to hurt you to try it. Either you’re going to it or you’re not. But if you can help you live a better life and live longer and not have to go to the doctor as often, then that’s great. That’s what those programs are there for.

Grace Morales: That’s a really nice message. And now we come to the hardest question, I’ve been told. What is your favorite Costco product?

Kim Shimamura: My favorite Costco product. It would have to be the avocado.

Grace Morales: Classic.

Kim Shimamura: That’s the one thing that I buy a lot of at Costco.

Grace Morales: Oh, they’re amazing. They’re amazing.

Kim Shimamura: They are amazing. They make great guacamole.

Grace Morales: That’s wonderful. Well, thank you, Kim, for sharing your story and leading from the front as a leader in the organization and trying to help all your fellow employees.
And thank you all for listening. Until next time, remember, we’re in this together.