“This isn’t the Oscars, honey! We’re not changing for the after party!”
Katie Thurston is sharing an update on her health four months after revealing her cancer diagnosis.
The 34-year-old Bachelor Nation alum, who was a contestant on “The Bachelor” before starring in season 17 of “The Bachelorette,” announced that she was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer in February.
One month later, she revealed that the cancer had progressed to stage 4 after spreading to her liver.
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On June 1, Thurston provided an update on Instagram in honor of National Cancer Survivors Day.
“I just finished my second month of treatment. And if you’re asking how long treatment is: technically forever,” she said before clarifying that she’s optimistic about medical advancements in the future.
“Every day that I’m alive, I’m a survivor,” she said of her treatment. “So, go me, I guess.”
The reality TV star went on to reveal some of the symptoms she’s experiencing after taking two months of medication.
“My hair is coming out in an unnatural amount of clumps — working on that,” she said in the clip. “I’m losing my memory — that’s great,” she added.
Thurston then recalled some of the instances where her memory loss got in the way of her day-to-day life, including not being able to remember where she was coming from when traveling through customs.
“Where are you coming from?” she was asked by a customs agent. “I don’t remember,” she replied.
During a recent disagreement with her newly-minted husband, comedian Jeff Arcuri, Thurston was trying to make a point when she was unable to continue her train of thought.
“I was like, ‘This has happened before,’ and he was like, ‘When?’” she recalled. “I was like, ‘I don’t know but I know it has.’”
“We’re able to laugh about it now,” she added.
Thurston’s update comes less than two months after Thurston and Arcuri tied the knot on March 22 in a small, intimate wedding with close family members.
Thurston started her treatment five days later.
In an interview with Us Weekly at the time, the couple revealed that they have plans of hosting a larger wedding ceremony once Thurston’s treatment ends.
“One night he said, ‘I want to show you that I still love you and that I’m here to stay. I’ll get married to you tomorrow,’” Thurston told Us Weekly. “We got our marriage license and a friend is just gonna marry us.”
Thurston has ‘big decisions’ to make in treating her liver
Now two months into her treatment, Thurston isn’t shy about giving her “raw, uncut” opinion on cancer.
“But yeah cancer is s***,” she said in the clip. “Sometimes, I’m like, ‘Stop feeling bad for yourself.’ Then other times, I’m like, ‘No, you’re allowed to feel bad for yourself.”
“Cancer f****** sucks,” she added.
Thurston says she’s now at the point where she needs to make “big decisions” on how to treat her liver.
Ruling out radiation and ablation, Thurston ultimately chose to go with a procedure known as histotripsy.
According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, a histotripsy “uses high-pitched ultrasound waves to target tumorous tissue in the liver.” Unlike other treatments, a histotripsy doesn’t require incisions in the body.
Thurston also detailed some complications she had with her medication.
“Oh yeah, and Zoladex didn’t work,” she said of her medication, which is supposed to lower sex hormone levels and suppress ovarian function. “So, we’re switching to Lupron.”
If Lupron doesn’t work, Thurston says she may need to have her ovaries removed.
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“Now I’m back at it again in New York City trying to live my best life as a f****** cancer patient,” she candidly quipped.
