Bachelorette star Katie Thurston is opening up about her breast cancer diagnosis.
The reality star, 34 — who announced her diagnosis last month on Instagram — got candid in an emotional interview with Good Morning America about how she dealt with the news that she had stage 3 invasive ductal carcinoma.
“[It’s like] the worst feeling I’ve ever felt,” said a teary-eyed Thurston of getting her diagnosis. “You’re just devastated. You’re so devastated. It’s so shocking.”
“As a 34-year-old woman it’s just— you’re not prepared,” she said.
She told GMA that she had noticed a “small lump” that “was sore” before the diagnosis but initially didn’t think anything of it.
“As women, we’re used to being told, ‘Oh, it’s probably your time of the month’ or ‘Oh, it’s from working out,’” she explained. “I brushed it off for a while. And then finally, I decided to go to the doctor.”
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Thurston said doctors told her that she needed to do chemo first” to “shrink” the tumor before it could be removed from “either one side or both sides.” She noted that was a conversation she still needed to have with her doctor as she didn’t “even know yet.”
“It just feels like a lot of things you’ve had to decide very, very quickly,” she shared.
“You’re on, like, survival mode. Like you don’t have a choice. You show up or you die,” she continued. “And I hate to say it that way, but like you just — every day you have an appointment. Every day you have to show up. You don’t have a choice.”
This comes a month after she initially shared the news on Instagram on Feb. 15, writing, “Life update: I have breast cancer.” She noted that she had been planning to travel the world with her fiancé, comedian Jeff Arcuri, before moving to New York City when she got the news.
“… My Vday was spent coordinating a place to live as I have to go back to LA for more testing and treatment,” she wrote. “I used my morning to figure out insurance for NYC and laws on preexisting conditions. I scheduled appointments for another biopsy, fertility, mental health, surgery, as well as meeting with my team to discuss the overall treatment plan, which will include chemo.”
Thurston was diagnosed with cancer two weeks prior to the post, she revealed, adding that she “experienced a range of emotions” after learning the news. “Despair. Anger. Sadness. Denial. And then strength,” she wrote. “Purposeful. Ready. I cried a lot. I tried to even make a video instead of this post and couldn’t.”
She said she wanted to share her story to help others going through the same thing. She concluded her message by saying that while the “first step of acceptance of my reality was the hardest,” she planned to “fight this.”
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