Danielle Fishel initially planned on just telling a few of the people closest to her that she was diagnosed with breast cancer, but then she realized she had an important message to share. The 43-year-old Boy Meets World actress revealed that she has been diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ, or DCIS, a very early form of breast cancer, on the August 19 episode of the Pod Meets World podcast she hosts alongside Rider Strong and Will Friedle.
"It is very early. It’s technically stage zero," she told listeners. She hopes her diagnosis will encourage others to go in for their yearly mammograms.
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She initially thought she would 'suffer in silence.'
On the podcast, Danielle explained that, in the past, when she thought about what she would do if she were diagnosed with cancer, she thought she would "suffer in silence" and "suck it up," only telling the people she's closest to. She would only open up about the diagnosis once she was "on the other side of it," she explained. That way, she could share what she went through and how she dealt with it after overcoming it.
Her perspective changed after learning from other people's experiences.
Danielle went on to explain how she learned from other people's experiences and ultimately changed her outlook.
"One of the women I have learned form is Glennon Doyle and she often talks about how a lot of people like to save sharing their experiences until they’ve come out on the other side of it so that they’re able to say, ‘Here’s the pretty picture of it all, here’s what i’ve learned,'" she explained.
"But the place you have the most to learn from is at the very beginning of a story or in the very messy middle of a story," Danielle continued.
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She discovered the power of sharing her diagnosis with others.
Danielle admitted that when she first learned of her breast cancer diagnosis, she didn't want to share it with the world — she just planned on sharing the news with a few people. When she started telling other people, however, she realized that many "people had their own experiences" and there is a "world of resources and experiences that can be shared by sharing (the diagnosis) and things that can be learned."
Danielle shared her specific diagnosis on the podcast.
"To be specific, just because I like too much information all the time, I was diagnosed with high-grade DCIS with micro-invasion," Danielle said on the podcast. She emphasized that she would be fine because the cancer was detected early.
"I’m gonna be fine," she said. "I’m having surgery to remove it. I’m gonna be on some follow-up treatment. I’ve had to make a lot of decisions over the last couple of days.”
She's encouraging everyone to make the appointment.
A big reason why Danielle decided to share her story is because she wants to encourage other women to get their yearly mammograms.
"The only reason I caught this cancer when it’s still stage zero is because the day I got my text message that my yearly mammogram had come up, I made the appointment," she said on the podcast.
Because she's so busy, she added, "it would be so easy to say, ‘I don’t have time for that, I went to my mammogram last year. I was fine last year. I don’t need to go again this year.’"
Because she didn't assume that she was fine, the cancer was detected "so so so early," she emphasized.
