Soon after Guerdy Abraira learned she had breast cancer, her doctors shared the treatment plan, which included radiation.
“The Real Housewives of Miami” star began looking for images of how radiation looks on Black and brown skin. But she could only find one picture, and it looked terrifying.
“It was so dramatic, and I’m like, ‘Is this what’s going to happen with me?’” Abraira tells TODAY.com. “It was literally a complete, black, perfect rectangle across the breast that led to the back of the breast.”
Abraira’s breast cancer journey
When Abraira asked her doctors about the image she found, they said the reaction in the image was extreme and the woman likely had a different type of breast cancer from Abraira. Still, this picture made Abraira want to speak out about the lack of photos of what radiation looks like on darker skin.
“I am working on filming my journey because I am going to have people see what it is from beginning to end and … show pictures,” she says. “I have no shame in the game.”
In March 2023, Abraira announced she was diagnosed with stage 1 estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer after a routine mammogram. Grappling with cancer felt tough.
“It was overwhelming because it’s a super slow process,” she says. “As you’re waiting for the next result, you’re still thinking, ‘Am I going to die?’”
While her doctors reassured her that her cancer was treatable, she still faced challenges. Originally, she believed that she would only need surgery and radiation, but then doctors added chemotherapy to her treatment regimen. Her type of cancer has a higher recurrence rate, and she wanted to reduce her chances of dealing with cancer again in the next decade.
“We needed to go more aggressive on treatment to minimize that recurrence,” she says. “Because of that treatment of chemo and radiation and surgery, I was able to reduce that chance to under now just up to 10%.”
Abraira is now cancer-free, but radiation…
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