Katie Thurston is revealing her treatment plan after recently announcing that her breast cancer has spread to her liver.
“My treatment is spaced out a six treatments to start, three weeks apart,” Thurston, 34, wrote on Friday, March 28, in a Q&A post via her Instagram Stories. “A treatment is essentially a dedicated day to travel/infusions/recovery.”
She went on to explain that her husband, comedian Jeff Arcuri, will “probably miss the first three” treatments due to his schedule.
“The good news is, if I’m up for it, I can still travel to where he is as early as the next day,” she added.
One week after their wedding, Thurston announced on Friday that her cancer had spread to her liver.
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“After days of waiting, unfortunately, I did find out today that my breast cancer has spread to the liver,” the former Bachelorette star said via an Instagram video. “It is fairly small, however it does put me at stage four.”
In another Instagram Stories post, Thurston explained how this new update will impact her treatment going forward.
“The plan is essentially the same as my breast cancer,” she explained, after a fan asked how doctors will treat the cancer in her liver. “The cancer that is within the liver is from the breast cancer spreading vs a new type of cancer. So in basic terms, my great cancer is the root and will be the focus. Six rounds of chemo to start.”
Thurston also explained that Zoladex, a medication used to treat hormone-dependent cancers, will “play a role in fertility preservation during treatment.”
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“I’m basically putting my ovaries into a temporary menopausal state (I like to say hibernation), to protect them from chemo,” she explained in another post. “It will also reduce estrogen production, which is particularly important in hormone receptor ER+/PR+ breast cancer, as estrogen can fuel cancer growth. I iced my stomach for three minutes before they did the injection. Painless all things considered. No symptoms that I noticed either.”
Thurston revealed that she has also discussed the possibility of using a surrogate with her husband.
“I never like the word ‘have to’ with anything medical related. Kind of like ‘never say never.’ However, yes, Jeff and I discussed the importance of my health and that when the time comes, surrogacy will likely be the best option for us.”
She went on to give her followers a “friendly reminder to stop judging celebrities who pursue surrogacy because you don’t know what they have going on in their personal lives.”
