Shannen Doherty is currently battling aggressive stage 4 breast cancer that has spread to her bones. Earlier this year, Doherty revealed the cancer had metastasized to her brain.
She's just now detailing how strenuous her recovery has been since undergoing brain surgery in January to remove that tumor, which she playfully named "Bob."
"He had to get removed and dissected to see his pathology," she told People magazine. "After surgery, my right hand, I couldn't hold a glass… It's why they put you on so many steroids. It’s to take down any brain swelling. And I have a horrible reaction with steroids, so I tried to cut down the steroids, and then the brain would swell a little bit more, and the hand would stop working completely."
SHANNEN DOHERTY'S CANCER HAS SPREAD: 'I'M NOT AFRAID OF DYING, I JUST DON'T WANT TO DIE'
"The first time a glass slipped right through my hand, I was like, 'No, no, no, no, no. This is not happening. I am going to work on this.' And so, I did," the "Beverly Hills, 90210" actress explained of her gumption to regain her motor skills. "It takes work and perseverance and a lot of dedication and faith to get through certain things."
Despite her positive outlook, Doherty says the severity of the situation was not lost. "Could they have gotten more of that particular tumor?" she remembered thinking after surgery. She also underwent radiation.
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"There [were] a few little glitches that I noticed in the beginning and I called the brain surgeon and had conversations, but it really only lasted probably three or four months before everything came right back," she said of the setbacks. "I have an amazing support system. I'm not a quitter."
Her mother, Rosa, is definitely one of those supporters. When Doherty was 8, her mother suffered a brain aneurysm and was given a 10% chance of survival. When she woke up from surgery, her eyebrow was paralyzed.
"I watched her like work, solidly, every single day until she could move that eyebrow… I come from that kind of stock. I come from a woman who was determined," she said of her mother. "She impressed that upon me as a very young child of like, 'You don't give up. You can accomplish anything that you set your mind to, you just have to work hard at it.'"
Doherty was originally diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. At the time, it had spread to her lymph nodes. By 2017, she was in remission, only for her cancer to return in 2020.
