‘Instead of Wallowing’ Breast Cancer Fighter Shannen Doherty is Focusing on Health During Her 14-Day Quarantine in Canada

The Charmed actress says to her fans in the Instagram story (with fun filters), "I'm in Canada because I'm starting a movie here and I've been in quarantine. I think quarantine lasts only 14 days but it feels like it's been a year, maybe two.”

Doherty candidly says that she’s committed to seeing the quarantine as an opportunity, rather than a burden. “I did make a decision that instead of wallowing in the immense amount of emotions that I'm feeling in this 14-day mandatory quarantine isolation period that definitely feels more like 5 years that I would exercise and get healthy, live my bum a couple of inches, perhaps tone my arms. I just got done doing my Peloton.”

Shannen’s Cancer Battle

Shannen Doherty was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 after finding a lump in her breast which turned out to be cancerous. Doherty had hormone therapy to fight the cancer, but it was ineffective and the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes.

Related: Breast Cancer: Overview

Doherty underwent a single mastectomy, and she also had chemotherapy and radiation. After going into remission, Doherty announced in February 2020 that her cancer returned, and this time it had spread to other parts of her body.

Surgery, like the kind Doherty had, is a common treatment path for many people facing breast cancer. In an earlier interview, Dr. Ann Partridge, an oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute says, "So when I talk to a woman who comes to me and she has breast cancer, I evaluate what the standard options for treatment for her are, which typically include cutting out the cancer– which is either a lumpectomy if you can get it all with just a little scooping around of the area that’s abnormal or a mastectomy for some women meaning taking the full breast because sometimes these lesions can be very extensive in the breast.”

When Should You Consider a Mastectomy?

Focusing on the Good

Doherty continuously focuses on the good, which has been shown to improve prognosis in some cases for cancer patients. Dr. Zuri Murrell, a colorectal surgeon at Cedars-Sinai, says in an earlier interview, “My patients who thrive, even with stage 4 cancer, from the time that they, about a month after they’re diagnosed, I kind of am pretty good at seeing who is going to be OK.”

Related: As Actor Jeff Bridges, 71, Battles Lymphoma He Focuses on Gratitude: 'Let the Gratefulness Overflow into Blessing All Around You'

“Now doesn’t that mean I’m good at saying that the cancer won’t grow. But I’m pretty good at telling what kind of patient are going to still have this attitude and probably going to live the longest, even with bad, bad disease. And those are patients who, they have gratitude in life,” he says

Stay Positive, It Matters

 

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