Shannen Doherty has started the next phase of her cancer treatment.
And she understandable very scared about it.
The former Beverly Hills, 90210 actress was diagnosed with breast cancer in February of 2015 and has since been as open as possible about her journey and her struggle.
The latest part of that journey and struggle?
Radiation treatment.
According to an Instagram photo and message on Monday, Doherty has kicked off this step of her hopeful recovery.
“First day of radiation treatment,” Doherty wrote as a caption to the image above.
She added:
“I look like I’m about to make a run for it which is accurate. Radiation is frightening to me. Something about not being able to see the laser, see the treatment and having this machine moving around you just scares me. I’m sure I’ll get used to it but right now…. I hate it.”
She included the hashtags, “#radiation, #radiationmondaysucks and #stillfightinglikeagirl with her moving post.
It took a few months for Doherty to reveal her diagnosis to the world.
She was forced to go public in August 2015 after she filed a lawsuit against her former management firm and business manager, who she alleges failed to pay her health insurance premiums.
As a result of this issue, Doherty said she wasn’t able visit doctors for a year, which meant her breast cancer went undetected.
Which greatly lowered her risk of survival.
But Doherty is still here and is determined to make the most of her life.
She flew down to Mexico with her husband last month in order to celebrate their five-year anniversary, sharing photos from the trip and writing a tribute to Kurt Iswarienko in the process.
“Life has thrown us some huge curves and we have faced them together with strength, love, passion and a desire to stand next to one another thru it all,” Doherty said at the time on social media.
As she fights to defeat this awful disease, she is making an effort in general to remember what’s important.
For example, as you can see above, she still voted in the Presidential election.
She also wrote an emotional message to her mom in August.
“Sometimes there’s nothing like a mothers love to help get you thru,” the star captioned a black-and-white photo of herself in her mother’s embrace.
“Thank you mom for always being there and being so strong for me. I love you.”
In August, Doherty revealed that the breast cancer had spread to her lymph nodes and that she would undergo chemotherapy, followed by the radiation that began this week.
We truly cannot imagine what she is going through.
“I think what’s beautiful and hard and interesting about cancer is that it tears you down and builds you, and tears you down and builds you, and it remakes you so many different times,” Doherty said in an emotional interview with Chelsea Handler last month.
“The person I thought I was supposed to be, or was going to be, or who I thought I was six months ago is now somebody completely different.”
We pray that Shannen Doherty joins the list above of celebrities that have overcome this awful disease.
We’re thinking of her.