Danielle Fishel has opened up about her journey with breast cancer, saying that while she’s “officially” done with treatment, she’s now dealing with the painful after-effects of 20 rounds of radiation.
“I just wanted to give everyone an update because I kept you all parallel,” Fishel, 43, joked on the Jan. 13 episode The floor meets the world, who leads together with her A boy meets the world starring Rider Strong and Will Friedle.
“I’m officially done with radiation,” she announced, earning Strong and Friedle cheers. However, she shared that while she is “officially done with what is considered active cancer treatment” for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), a diagnosis she shared in August, Fishel is still dealing with side effects.
Danielle Fishel with (from left) Will Friedle and Rider Strong in 2023.
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“I did 15 rounds of whole breast radiation and then five rounds of targeted radiation, which just means they focus on a very small area where my cancer was versus treating the whole breast,” she explained. “It will significantly reduce my chances of relapse, which is always good news, but man, I’m feeling the effects… Physically, I have really bad sunburn. I also have a sunburn rash, which is just great,” she added sarcastically.
“It’s very itchy, and also, you can’t scratch it, because if you even come close to touching it, you’ll want to cry,” she said, saying “it hurts to wear a bra, it hurts not to wear a bra.” It just hurts to sleep on my side, it hurts to sleep, period. It hurts to be awake.”
When Friedle and Strong expressed their concern for her, she said, “You know what? It won’t last forever. Physically, every day, I should be getting better. As for being tired, I’m really, really tired.”
Fishel shared that her doctor told her that radiation has a “cumulative effect” and that “you’re just now starting to feel the effects of your first radiation.”
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Danielle Fishel in Las Vegas 2023.
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She said that the doctors advised her that she would feel better in “two to three months”.
“Sorry. What?” Fishel said, adding that doctors have advised her, “If I want to feel better faster, I need to exercise and drink water.”
“I’m sorry. You want me to be tired and take care of myself?” she joked. “I started working out. I worked out yesterday. I’m going to exercise again on Friday because he said that exercising and drinking water is helping my body get rid of all the damage the radiation has done,” she said.
She said that she will start hormone therapy with tamoxifen when she recovers from radiation. “They didn’t want to overload me with negative side effects,” Fishel said, adding that the radiation itself was “relatively easy. You’re not really doing anything. You’re just laying there.”
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Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education