Shannen Doherty recently said she's "living life" while battling stage 4 breast cancer, but she's getting real about the fight on Instagram.
On Oct. 7, the "Beverly Hills, 90210" alum posted two private images that show the effects of her cancer and chemotherapy treatments — one photo shows Shannen with a shaved head and tending to a bloody nose, while the other shows her sleeping in head-to-toe Cookie Monster pajamas.
"For breast cancer awareness month, I'd like to share more of my own personal journey from my first diagnosis to my second. Is it all pretty? NO but it's truthful and my hope in sharing is that we all become more educated, more familiar with what cancer looks like," she captioned the photos. "I hope I encourage people to get mammograms, to get regular checkups, to cut thru the fear and face whatever might be in front of you."
The "Charmed" star was first diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2015, but two years later she happily announced that she was in remission. However, in February 2020, the actress revealed that she'd been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.
"In 2015 I got diagnosed with breast cancer," she recalled. "I had a mastectomy and did chemo and radiation. I had many nose bleeds from the chemo. Not sure if any of you experienced this. I also was beyond tired."
"I cheered myself up by putting on funny pajamas that my friend Kristy gave me. Did they actually cheer me up? Yes!! Lol," she continued. "I looked ridiculous and in that ridiculousness, I was able to laugh at myself. Finding humor helped get me thru what seemed impossible. I hope we all find humor in the impossible."
Despite her diagnosis, Shannen has been working — she has two Lifetime movies debuting this month.
"A lot of people who get diagnosed with stage 4, they sort of get written off," she told "Good Morning America." "It's assumed that they cannot work or they can't work at their full capacity, and that is not true. That is something that I would really like people to stop assuming, and give us a chance to prove them wrong."