The Office’s Jenna Fischer Reflects on Her Emotional Cancer Journey: ‘The Most Important Things Became so Clear’ — Watch
Just two weeks after announcing her breast cancer diagnosis and battle, The Office star Jenna Fischer appeared on Monday’s Today to reflect on her journey and continue to spread awareness about the disease.
While speaking with Hoda Kotb, Fischer discussed how she was diagnosed last December, reminding women to make sure they get regular mammograms and check-ups, especially if they’ve been putting it off.
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Fischer said that even after needing to get retested and following up with an ultrasound, the actress still felt all of the appointments were a “total eyeroll.”
“When I was getting the biopsy, the mood changed,” she said in the interview embedded above. “That’s when I got nervous… I checked the portal and that’s when I saw words like ‘invasive, ductal, carcinoma, malignant,’ and I was like, ‘those words sound like cancer words.'”
She was ultimately diagnosed with Stage 1 triple positive breast cancer, a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer. The actress said one of her greatest challenges was sharing the news with her children, who are 10 and 13. Luckily, she had amazing support from her husband, Lee, was handled a bulk of the family’s responsibilities.
After Fischer told her Office Ladies co-host and real-life best friend Angela Kinsey about her diagnosis, Fischer said she didn’t want to be a cancer patient at work. She wanted to continue producing their podcast and have work be a safe space for her, where things could feel normal. And when her hair started falling out and she had to wear hats over a wig, Kinsey wore hats to work too so that Fischer wouldn’t be the only one wearing baseball caps during meetings.
“All of the most important things became so clear so quickly,” Fischer said. “I find the world to be such a beautiful place in all of its quirkiness. Things that even used to irritate me, now I sometimes find charming. Like traffic.”
After surgery, radiation and 12 rounds of chemo, doctors shared that Fischer no longer had any evidence of cancer in her body. Watch the actress tell her story in the video above.
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