Staying Positive During Cancer
- Professional organizer and Netflix star Clea Shearer, 40, is "committed" to enjoying her life as she continues to fight stage 2 breast cancer.
- She flew from Nashville, Tenn., to Charleston, S.C., yesterday (Wednesday, May 11) to see Little Big Town and Miranda Lambert perform at Credit One Stadium in Charleston tonight (Thursday, May 12).
- Dr. Zuri Murrell told us that he can tell which of his patients will thrive while fighting cancer solely from their attitude. And "a positive attitude is really important."
In fact, she even flew from her home in Nashville, Tenn., to Charleston, S.C., yesterday (Wednesday, May 11) to see Little Big Town and Miranda Lambert perform at Credit One Stadium in Charleston tonight (Thursday, May 12).
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"Chemo starts next week, so living it up (within reason post two surgeries) until treatment starts!" she wrote as the caption to her Instagram post. "I'm committed to enjoying my life however I can because cancer isn't going to keep me down."
Clea Shearer lives in Nashville with her husband and their two children. She co-founded The Home Edit with her best friend and business partner Joanna Teplin, 42. Their business became such a success that Netflix opted to make a television show of it. Netflix released the second season of Get Organized with the Home Edit on April 1.
Staying Positive During Cancer
Dr. Zuri Murrell, a colorectal surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, previously told SurvivorNet that he can tell which of his patients will thrive while fighting cancer solely from their attitude.
And "a positive attitude is really important," he said. (Clea Shearer has made it a point to stay positive during her breast cancer battle.)
Remember: If you've just been diagnosed with cancer, negative feelings are normal. Men and women react in different ways anger, shame, fear, anxiety. It’s to be expected.
Experienced doctors will tell you that people who find a way to work through the emotions and stay positive, like Clea, end up doing better. And she’s thriving, even amid cancer!
Clea Shearer’s Breast Cancer Diagnosis
Last month, Clea Shearer announced that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and that she would be undergoing a double mastectomy.
"I found a lump myself (in) the last week of February," Clea posted to Instagram on April 7. "I had been trying to make an appt with my OB(GYN) for several months, and even when I told them I found a lump, they couldn't accommodate me. I had to request a mammogram from my general doctor, which led to an ultrasound, and then an emergency triple biopsy."
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Clea, who's been sharing regular updates about her health on Instagram, was originally told her cancer was stage 1, but during the nine-hour surgery on Friday, April 8, doctors found cancer in one of her lymph nodes, which elevated the cancer to stage 2. The type of breast cancer Clea was diagnosed with hasn’t been been made public yet, but she said her cancer is "aggressive and fast-moving," however, "I caught it early."
She had two tumors, one measuring 2 centimeter in size and the other 3 centimeters (she was originally told each tumor was 1 centimeter). The tumors were sent to a lab in order to determine if Clea will need chemotherapy or radiation, and it turns out she’ll need both.
Last week, Clea shared more news with her Instagram followers that she’ll be starting chemotherapy in about two weeks on May 19.
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"Am I nervous? Absolutely. But am I ready? Absolutely. Chemo won't be fun, but it will be FINE! And when this is all done, I'm going to live to be 95," she wrote.
"For now, I'm tackling the next two weeks and getting everything I need organized and ready to go. In the meantime, I walked 3 miles today! Thanks for being with me on this journey."
According to her Instagram, Clea also underwent a second breast cancer surgery recently because “some of my skin tissue is just NOT having it…” She’s currently recovering at home.
Clea recently marked one month since her double mastectomy procedure.
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