We know Lesley Murphy best as a contestant on season 17 of The Bachelor — she fought for Sean Lowe’s heart, and she came in fifth place.
Or at least, that was how we knew her.
These days, she’s doing work that’s a little more important than reality show love.
Last month, Lesley revealed that she carried a gene that put her at high risk for breast cancer and ovarian cancer and, as a preventative measure, she’d be getting a double mastectomy.
She explained that her mother battled breast cancer, and so she felt it was best to “take care of it right now” with the surgery.
And so last week, she had both of her breasts removed.
She’s been documenting her recovery on her Instagram page, and it’s really just amazing to see.
The first day after her surgery, she wrote that the whole thing was “hard to wrap my head around,” and after seeing her chest, she described it as “It looks like I was in a bear fight and lost. Badly.”
But, she added, “The human body is truly amazing, though, and I will heal soon enough.”
The second day after her surgery, she was able to go home, but with a little apron that held four tubes attached to her chest to drain fluids.
Poor Lesley wrote that “Walking and breathing still doesn’t come easy,” but she looks pretty tough to us.
And then on Sunday, she shared another update — along with a topless photo of herself, taken just five days after her mastectomy.
“My Sunday best,” she captioned the picture, “or what I could manage to put on today with limited arm movements.”
“My mom washed and dried my hair today. She dresses me in the mornings. She also measures my drains twice daily which are the tubes you see coming out of my lovely red apron I never take off,” she continued.
“She’s the freaking best. She slept in my hospital room and bed at home for the first few nights, helping me in and out of bed and giving me meds at horrid hours to control the pain.”
“I have to sleep on my back in the exact same position every night,” she described. “Sometimes when I make the wrong movements it feels like my chest is detaching from my body, but all in all, I think my upper half is healing nicely!”
“Sure, it’s sunken in and lumpy because what you see are deflated expanders that were put in which will gradually get filled every 2-3 weeks as I get ready for reconstructive surgery.”
“Hopefully by then the permanent marker will be off my body.”
Lesley wrote that she feels “lucky” because “my surgeons only made one vertical incision on the lower half of both breasts will saving skin and nipple.”
“So while all breast tissue is (hopefully) gone,” she concluded, “I retained some of the old me! Happy Sunday. God is good.”
In her latest update, which she wrote yesterday, she wrote that she had two of her four tubes removed, and the other two would be removed next week.
“As always,” she added, “I love you guys. I read every heartfelt comment and truly feel the love of this incredible support system.”
“Together we are creating so much awareness for early detection, screenings, gene mutations and how to work with the options we have. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
And thank you, Lesley!
Because seriously, what an inspiration.
