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E! News anchor Giuliana Rancic went back to work last Tuesday just two weeks after undergoing a double mastectomy and reconstruction surgery. It wasn’t easy for her at all. The reality star told The Today Show in an interview on Friday that she feels great now, but that the immediate post-op recovery period was “hell” and that it was “horrible.”

“I knew this was going to be a tough surgery, but I in no way want to minimize it,” Giuliana told Matt Lauer during an interview on NBC’s the “Today” show on Friday. “Yes, I’m two and a half weeks out, but up until a week and a half ago it was hell. It was horrible.”

The 37-year-old E! TV host also revealed she suffered from an unforeseen complication that made the recovery process even more difficult – she was unable to tolerate morphine, the pain medication used to manage her post-surgery pain.

“I went into surgery at 4 PM and got out around 9:30 PM,” she told Matt. “By 4 AM I had to get off the morphine because I was so sick and I thought to myself, ‘[If you throw up] you have to engage all of your chest muscles,’ and I just had my chest operated on.”

Though she’s “feeling great” now, Giuliana still relies on husband Bill Rancic to help her accomplish everyday tasks while she continues to recover.

“I can’t really turn much to put my seatbelt on,” she said. “He has to help me get in and out of bed, get dressed…it’s a lot of limited mobility and pain.”

[From omg.yahoo.com]

Toward the end of that interview, Matt asked Giuliana’s husband Bill if he was afraid that she was pushing herself too hard after having surgery. He said “We don’t do anything without the doctor’s approval. This is something that she was intent on doing. She wanted to turn the negative into a positive. The response and the number of people who said ‘I went in and got my first mammogram…’ it’s worth it if you can save one life during this process.” As I mentioned in an earlier story, I did get an appointment with an OB/GYN to look at my tatas. She did a sonogram of my breast tissue and said that everything looks fine and that it wasn’t necessary for me to get a mammogram at this point. I honestly would not have made that appointment if it wasn’t for Giuliana’s story.

In a way I don’t think Giuliana is painting a realistic picture of this process at all. Even if she’s saying that the post op recovery was “horrible,” we’re seeing her looking perfect on TV two weeks later. I would like to see her take more time before going back to work. If she wasn’t such a motivated go-getter, she might not be as open with the press about her cancer battle, though. She’s definitely helped raise awareness of a disease that affects so many women.

Giuliana is shown interviewing Angelina Jolie on 12-5-11 and with Bill on 9-8-11. Credit: WENN.com

E! correspondent Giuliana Rancic, 37, first went public with her breast cancer diagnosis this October. Early stage cancer was found in both of her breasts following two rounds of IVF treatment. An initial lumpectomy was unsuccessful at removing all the cancer, and she just had a double mastectomy with reconstruction. In an appearance on the Today Show earlier this month, Giuliana was with a breast cancer specialist who explained that the reconstruction options for mastectomies are so much more natural now than they were in the past. According to that doctor, most women opt for reconstruction immediately after the breasts are removed, which is what she usually recommends. The good news is that Giuliana is doing well and her husband said she was even cracking jokes after her surgery:

The E! News and Fashion Police mainstay underwent successful double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery last night for her breast cancer, and, according to husband Bill Rancic, came through in great spirits.

“G is doing really well,” Bill exclusively tells E! News. “Her surgery lasted about four hours and the doctors were very pleased with the result.”

“She had a little bit of pain through the night but is feeling much better this morning and was cracking jokes.”

Sounds like Giuliana is already back in fine form.

Indeed, she even had her own message to share.

“I want to thank all the viewers and fans for their support and prayers,” she says. “The tweets and notes have not gone unnoticed. I am very grateful.”

[From E! Online]

In the comments in our last post on this, I learned so much from those of you who have had cancer. Two of you have had lung cancer and noted that it’s the most common cancer of all. Many nonsmokers get it as well. Also, I was touched by Beryl’s comment that she’s a cancer survivor and that it’s hard to predict how Giuliana will feel emotionally during her illness. Giuliana has said that she’s keeping strong and will be fine, but as Beryl mentioned cancer can an emotional roller coaster. She may “sacrifice some of her personal life to help others,” but it could ultimately be harder for Giuliana to have to go through all this in the public eye. Hopefully she’s right about how she’ll feel and she’ll be ok. Best wishes to Giuliana for a speedy recovery.

*That title is a homage to the “save the tatas” campaign. Giuliana and Bill are shown outside the Today Show and The Wendy Williams show on 12/5 and 12/6. Credit: Pacific Coast News

I will admit that I’m torn on what to think about E! correspondent Giuliana Rancic’s latest announcement that she has breast cancer and is undergoing a double mastectomy. It makes me feel like a bad person to admit that. On one side she’s going through an incredibly difficult health battle and is raising awareness of a disease that affects one in 8 women in the U.S. On the other she’s engaged in some obvious self promotion, which is understandable given her job. This is a woman with a reality show and a lifestyle website. I feel for her that she has cancer and I do think it’s brave of her to go public with this, but I still can’t help but see her as a mix of Gwyneth Paltrow and The Kardashians.

So anyway Giuliana went on The Today Show earlier this week to announce that the lumpectomy she had for early stage breast cancer (which she announced in October) wasn’t effective and that she would be having a double mastectomy and reconstruction. Then she went on Wendy Williams and The Ryan Seacrest show (he’s her boss at E! after all) and now she’s on the cover of People. I would rather see People highlight this important health issue than try and make us care why the latest bachelorette dumped her boyfriend.

Giuliana Rancic knows she’ll have scars from her upcoming double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery. And she plans to embrace them.

“I think scars tell such an incredible story,” the E! News anchor, 37, tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story. “I’ll always look at them and think, ‘Wow, I made it through that.’ ”

Still, she admits that there are moments as she lays in bed next to her husband Bill, 40, when impact of her shocking cancer diagnosis hits her.

“Usually it’s 2 in the morning, and I’ll turn around from Bill so I don’t wake him up, and I just cry,” she says. “I sob and think, ‘How did this happen?’ ”

Mostly, though, the “tough Italian woman,” as Bill calls his wife of four years, is determined to eradicate the disease that has turned her world upside down since being diagnosed three months ago.

“My breasts have never defined me – and now they never will,” says Giuliana, whose surgery is scheduled for Dec. 13.

[From People]

I hope she recovers fully, I hope she and Bill have that child they were hoping for all along, and I hope her story inspires others to get mammograms. For people with cancer, I hope they are inspired by Giuliana’s story to power through their treatment and stay positive. I think that I can listen to what she’s going through and feel for her, but still not be a huge fan, you know?

Here’s a clip of Giuliana and Bill on The Wendy Williams show. I do like Bill a lot.

Giuliana is shown interviewing Angelina Jolie on the red carpet on Monday. Credit: WENN.com

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Damn, this story keeps reminding me that I need to get my first mammogram. I’m not putting it off I swear, I just need to get a new Gyn and the one I called under my insurance had a super bitchy receptionist that I talked to for a while and got the worst impression of. I know that shouldn’t deter me, but it made me put it off and not bother to make an appointment, so maybe I’m looking for excuses. Anyway E! host Guiliana Rancic was diagnosed with breast cancer this summer after she had a mammogram at the insistence of her fertility doctor. The beginning stages of cancer were found in both of her breasts, and Giuliana underwent a lumpectomy and radiation as well as had some lymph nodes removed. Now Giuliana has announced that she’ll be getting a double mastectomy, because the lumpectomy wasn’t able to clear all the cancer from one of her breasts. Giuliana explained that it was the best course of treatment and that she and her husband weighed the options carefully.

If I had chosen to just do another lumpectomy and then do radiation, and then do estrogen therapy, which is two to five years of medication, that basically puts me into early menopause and then I would have to put off having a baby for several years. That was actually something we took into account. But to be honest, at the end all it came down to was just choosing to live and not looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life.

It could have come back more aggressively next time. For me it was just more important to get the cancer out. Basically with the double mastectomy I have less than a 1% chance of getting it back. With another lumpectomy, radiation and medication, I could have seen a 20-40% chance in my lifetime. [of the cancer returning]. To me it just wasn’t worth it.

Bill said that if Giuliana opted for another lumpectomy as treatment she would have to get mammograms every six months for the rest of her life. I actually started tearing up when Giuliana recalled what Bill told her about getting a mastectomy. He said “I just need you around for the next fifty years. I don’t care what you look like… I just need you around for the next fifty years so let’s just get you healthy.” What a great guy Bill is.

In a later segment they had a breast cancer doctor on and she said that women usually have reconstruction almost immediately after the mastectomy surgery. As opposed to 20 years ago, the reconstruction options are much more advanced and natural looking. Plus I don’t mean to sound callous, but so many women have fake boobs. It’s not like Giuliana will be out of place in Hollywood.

I hope that Giuliana has a swift recovery and that she and Bill are able to realize their dream of having children. It could happen for them. Christina Applegate had a double mastectomy in 2008 and she welcomed a daughter in 2011.

These photos are from 11/19/11 and 11/5/11. Credit: WENN and Fame

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m not a fan of E! correspondent Giuliana Rancic. She’s superficial, she can be somewhat petty, and she has serious issues around eating and gaining weight, in that she refused to gain any even when her doctor told her it was medically necessary to realize her dream of becoming a mother.

Giuliana went public with her breast cancer diagnosis last month. Her cancer was discovered early when her doctor insisted she get a mammogram prior to her third round of IVF treatment. She underwent a double lumpectomy and was back to work at E! in about a week. In a new interview with Parade, Giuliana says that she’s happy to continue filming her reality show with her husband, and that she’s also really grateful for her job at E!. I prefaced all this with the fact that I don’t really like her, because after reading this interview I’m coming around. It sounds like this major health scare has changed her outlook:

On the feedback she received after revealing her breast cancer diagnosis.
“When I went public, I thought, ‘OK, I guess a couple of people are going to talk about this,’ but I couldn’t believe it. The outpouring and the love and support was just beyond anything I could have ever imagined. I really relied on a lot of those messages I was receiving through Twitter and email and through blogs right before the surgery and the week I was recovering. I know it sounds so cliché, but I think it helped me recover quicker and it got me in better spirits. The word I kept seeing over and over again was ‘strong.’ ‘Be strong, you’re strong.’ That word has never meant so much to me as it has this past month. I owe that all to the people behind me.”

On how she’s doing post-surgery.
“I’m good. I’m hanging in there. I have good days and bad days, but so far so good. I’m very optimistic and I’m just happy to have caught it early. I think that’s really the most important thing. Early detection means so much. I want women to make sure they’re taking care of their health and being proactive.”

She also received a lot of support from E! News co-anchor Ryan Seacrest.
“He’s great. I describe our relationships as like a brother-sister relationship. We pick on each other, he probably picks on me much more than I pick on him, but it’s like a brother would. We have a great time. He’s been great to work with all these years. I love working with him.”

On showcasing her life with husband Bill Rancic (an entrepreneur who won the first season of The Apprentice) on their reality show, Giuliana and Bill.
“I guess it all started on our wedding day. The Style Network made a TV special out of the wedding and we actually got used to having the cameras around pretty quickly. People loved that special so much that the network wanted to do a reality series with us.”

She has no regrets about showing the ups and downs of their life together.
“We just felt like with every trial and tribulation we’ve put on this show, people have told us how much they learned from it and how it made them feel less alone. We thought that was a pretty incredible opportunity. The fact that we can help people through our show is an honor. We’re happy to do it and it’s something that we continue to do. We really are like open books. It’s worth it to kind of sacrifice some of my personal life to help others.”

On balancing her busy schedule.
“I think it’s just about appreciating it. Yesterday, I did nine interviews with the London Olympic athletes for E! News and then I had a two-hour meeting after work on a project I’m doing, after that I went to have a drink with my husband and spent a little quality romantic time with him, and then I went to the George Clooney premiere for The Descendants and had some romantic time with him — just kidding! And then I cruised home and spent some time with my mom, who is in town. It seems crazy and it’s a long day and it’s exhausting, but whenever I feel it’s too much, I take a step back and think this is such a great job. I’m so fortunate to have it. I have never taken it for granted. Whenever things get a little too hectic or I feel like I’m going to break down, I just think about how lucky I am. I’m not digging ditches, this is not brain surgery, this is fun and I’m very lucky to have this job.”

[From Parade]

I really like what she said at the end, when she started bitching about her schedule and then checked herself by saying she’s not digging ditches or performing brain surgery. She gained some humility and it sounds like she’s not taking her life for granted now. Of course she went on prior to that about how her reality show, for which she’s being well paid and is even taking paid product endorsements, is some kind of noble endeavor to help couples who also struggle with infertility. Giuliana and Bill even did a commercial for Merck’s “fertility lifelines,” which I’m sure she’d say she did for humanitarian purposes. Still, baby steps. I’m hoping these two realize their dream of getting pregnant soon. They’ve been through a lot together, and Bill consistently comes across as a caring, committed guy.

Giuliana and Bill are shown on 11/19/11 at “The Cotton’s 24-Hour Runway Show,” credit: Fame. They’re also shown on 11/5/11 at a book signing and lighting the Macy’s tree in Chicago. Credit: WENN.com

The simple fact that many of us love to hate on Gisele Bundchen is easily evidenced by the responses to this recent post, in which the very effusive supermodel just doesn’t seem to realize when she’s leaking not-so-subtle airs of condescension towards the unwashed masses (including her own sisters). Quite simply, the woman has a chronic case of verbal diarrhea and could easily use a few lessons in diplomacy.

I do agree that Gisele doesn’t come off well in print interviews; and certainly, she must be least slightly insufferable in person at times. So when I first heard about Gisele’s surprise visit to children suffering from cancer, my first thought was, “What the hell are these poor kids going to do with modelling lessons?” Yet the story itself turns out to be genuinely sweet and rather moving as well:

She’s known for striding down some of the world’s most famous catwalks, so it was an altogether different kind show for supermodel Gisele Bundchen when she surprised a group of young cancer patients this weekend.

The Brazilian beauty, 31, met the girls – all patients at the Jimmy Fund Clinic at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute – at a Boston salon, where, after a pampering session, she taught them how to strut like a model.

The world-famous fashion figure, ranked 60th in Forbes’ list of Most Powerful Women, was so moved by the experience that she left in tears.

As part of a special Girls’ Weekend Out, the 29 youngsters were treated to hair styling, make-up, manicures and pedicures at Salon Pini & Co. Little did they know they were about to meet the “model of the millennium.”

WEEI show host, John Dennis, helped organise the model’s unexpected appearance through the Gisele’s husband, New England Patriots star, Tom Brady.

Mr Dennis told the Boston Herald about the surprise: “I asked them to turn down the music, and said ‘Can I have your attention, because we’re not done yet. You all look beautiful. This looks like a room of supermodels. I think the only way we could raise the level of supermodel-dom in this room is to bring out the world’s most famous supermodel.’”

Her effect on the patients was special, he said: “I’ve spent some time with the kids from the Jimmy Fund, and the one thing you notice is that there’s a deep and abiding sadness in their eyes. And even today, it was there still. But when she came in, it went away.”

Patient Hannah Baiona, 15, described meeting the Boston-based star. “We all started clapping and everyone was excited… She individually met with us all and gave us each a rose, and gave us each a hug, and we got to take pictures with her. She was mostly saying hi to everyone, being like “It’s nice to meet you! You look so pretty. You look so good!’”

The high school sophomore, who is in remission from Hodgkin’s lymphoma, told the Herald: “We made a fake little catwalk in the salon, and we each walked down it. Then there were three girls that were in wheelchairs, and she strolled them down the catwalk. Another girl and I didn’t want to walk alone, so she waked arm-in-arm with us.”

The supermodel was so moved by meeting the patients that she left the salon in streams of tears.

Mr Dennis said: “Her face was turned away from the kids and she started crying uncontrollably. The tears were streaming down her face. She was emotionally drained. She said ‘I love all of you,’ and got in the elevator before they could see her face. It was unbelievable.”

[From Daily Mail]

If you so desire some pictorial evidence of this event, a few rather blurry Facebook photos are available here, and here is some video footage of Gisele pushing the wheelchairs of these kids down an imaginary runway:

Now here’s the obvious question — did Gisele make this visit out of sheer selflessness, or was she simply trying to improve her public image? At this point, the reason behind her actions really doesn’t matter because she reportedly did grow overwhelmed with emotion, and she definitely did make these kids feel important for the day.

So while Gisele will probably go back to acting like her blissfully pompous self once again in short order, she did a good thing here. Model behavior, if you will.

Photos courtesy of WENN

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Giuliana Rancic underwent surgery for breast cancer Tuesday, having made the announcement that she had cancer on Monday on the Today show. A lot of people were wondering why Giuliana waited until now to have her breast cancer treated when it was discovered back in August. It’s unclear why she decided to take the time to both make the announcement and treat her cancer, but it’s possible she was waiting until she either had a break in her schedule or was thoroughly off the hormones she was taking for her third round of IVF treatment. She explained on the Today show that she was in the midst of treatment and was taking hormones when the cancer was discovered. Luckily her cancer was discovered early, due to her doctor’s insistence that she get a mammogram before another round of IVF.

As an aside, many of you have mentioned a possible connection between IVF hormones and cancer, particularly breast cancer. The Today Show had a doctor on earlier this week who addressed this issue. She said there is no known link between IVF and cancer and chalked it up to a correlation between older women getting IVF and having higher cancer rates. Other doctors note that more research into the long term effects of IVF is needed.

Giuliana’s husband Bill Rancic was on The Today Show to talk about his wife’s recovery. He was very positive about how well she did during her operation, and was also very sweet and supportive. He said that he wishes he could take on some of the pain and the burden for her. He is doing that, just by being there for her.

As Giuliana Rancic recovers from surgery following her recent revelation that she is battling breast cancer, the E! News anchor’s supportive husband, Bill Rancic, gave an update on the Today show this morning.

“She’s a trouper, she pulled through it and was kind of relieved to get it over with and get the cancer out and is doing well at home,” Bill said while talking about the double lumpectomy that his wife had just undergone. “It was kind of a long day. There’s many steps in the process when you go through this because it was on both breasts.”

However, he and Giuliana remain positive.

“We’re viewing this as a gift,” insisted Bill. “It was caught very, very early and we’re going back to the doctor tomorrow. They had to remove a couple of lymph nodes and we’re hoping we get a report tomorrow.”

While the next step for Giuliana will be radiation treatment, the Fashion Police cohost is planning to get back to work next week.

“She’s excited,” Bill said. “But she’s really viewing life a little bit differently. It’s funny, when you go through a situation like this, it really turns the volume down on the things that really aren’t that important.”

[From E! Online]

At the end of the interview, Bill said they’ve received a lot of tweets from people saying they’ve scheduled mammograms and “that was the goal” of going public with their story.

I didn’t realize that Giuliana had cancer in both breasts! That’s rough, and thank goodness they caught it early. I hope that these two are able to realize their dream of having children soon.

These photos are from 9/8/11 and 5/7/11. Credit: WENN.com

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I was just considering whether I should get my first mammogram. We’re hearing so much about this very prevalent cancer during this month of breast cancer awareness, and it makes me wonder if it’s something I should look into. Now that I’ve heard that E! correspondent Giuliana Rancic was diagnosed with breast cancer at 37 (she’s a year younger than me), I’m definitely considering it. Rancic revealed her diagnosis, which was made in August, this morning on The Today Show. She explained that she had a mammogram prior to her third round of IVF treatment after her doctor insisted on it. Luckily her cancer was caught it very early, but it sounds like she’s gone through so much in the past few months. She’s set to have surgery and radiation over the next few weeks.

Giuliana Rancic had an announcement to make during a Monday morning appearance on The Today Show — but it wasn’t the one she or anyone wanted or expected.

Instead of a happy pregnancy announcement, Rancic, 37, told Ann Curry: “I have early stage breast cancer.” The E! News host and Giuliana and Bill star made the frightening discovery back in August, as she was preparing for her third attempt to get pregnant through in vitro fertilization.

Rancic explained that her doctor sternly insisted that she get a mammogram before going through with the third IVF treatment. (The pregnancy hormones could “accelerate the cancer,” Rancic recalled her doctor as saying.)

The star, who said she has no family history of breast cancer, “wasn’t prepared to get a mammogram until i was 40 years old,” she admitted. “I never in my wildest dreams expected anything to be wrong.”

When the hospital called a few days later to tell her the shocking news, Rancic admits she was immediately “sobbing…It was like the world just crashed around me.”

But a visibly emotional Rancic assured fans, “I will be okay, because I found it early. I’m doing surgery this coming week, and then I go to radiation for six and a half weeks.”

At her side throughout the ordeal is husband Bill Rancic, 40. “Bill is unbelievable,” Rancic gushed. “He lets me cry when I want to cry. He just lets me feel what I want to feel.”

And the spouses of four years are determined to continue in their attempts to conceive once Giuliana’s medical isseus are resolved. “I’m not gonna give up,” she said. When she does get pregnant, “That baby will have saved my life,” she mused. “There’s some master plan. Now I know that [God] was looking out for me.”

She urged all women to get tested for breast cancer. “I think a lot of us think we’re invincible,” she said. “We have to start putting ourselves on the to do list.”

[From US Weekly]

That’s pretty shocking. Giuliana explained on The Today Show she was initially against getting a mammogram and tried to argue against it to her doctor. She does have an aunt who is a breast cancer survivor, but explained that she went through prior testing for the breast cancer gene and she’s not a carrier. For as much as I don’t like Giuliana, she’s doing a incredibly good thing here by reminding us to get checked. All the pink ribbons and very helpful reminders I’ve been seeing these past month were not as convincing to me as hearing Giuliana tell her story.

Giuliana and her husband Bill are shown on 10/14/11. Credit: Fame

Late last week, we heard that Barefoot Contessa celebrity cook Ina Garten had refused a request from a six year-old cancer patient in Oregon to come and cook with him. Little Enzo suffers from Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and reached to to Garten’s people through the Make a Wish foundation. He often watches “Barefoot Contessa” in bed with his mom and had his heart set on meeting Garten. He was persistent and asked two years in a row after she begged off last year due to a book tour. When Garten refused the second time, Enzo was said to be “heartbroken” and asking “why doesn’t she want to meet me?”

Other celebrity chefs then stepped up and volunteered to cook for Enzo, including Beau MacMillan and “Iron Chef” Michael Symon. MacMillan said he’d fly the family to Arizona and treat them to dinner at his restaurant and a comped stay at a fancy resort. Symon volunteered to come over to Enzo’s house.

Then of course, after all that bad publicity, Garten finally said she’d fulfill the wish of that terminally ill little kid and acted like this was the first time she’d heard of it. Even if she has a team of people fielding offers for her I find that hard to believe. She said she’d bring the boy to the Food Network studios and would be calling him. That story came out on Monday and Garten is said to have called the family with the offer Monday night.

Enzo, though, had already moved on to his backup wish, swimming with the dolphins, and is learning how to swim. His dad told TMZ that Garten did call them after she promised to, but that he turned her down because he doesn’t “want to put my son through all these emotions. We’re better off just leaving everything the way it is.”

I don’t blame Enzo’s dad for not telling his son that Garten finally stepped up to the plate after their family went through all that. I have a six year old and they can get very upset when things don’t go as expected. Once they’ve moved on and are focused on something else it’s better not to remind them about it. Besides, it will surely be much more fulfilling for Enzo to swim with some dolphins than to get to cook with a snobby woman who can’t be bothered to make time for anyone or anything other than promotional opportunities.

Enzo:

Michael Douglas rounded out the Golden Globes very nicely last night when he presented the award for Best Picture. The crowd went wild, cheering for him and all standing up. Michael quipped “there’s got to be an easier way to get a standing ovation.” He looked great and you could tell that he’s put some weight back in since he’s successfully completed cancer treatments.

I have so admired the way Douglas has handled himself both during his cancer battle and now that he’s tentatively beaten throat cancer. That was a nice tribute to a great actor and a very admirable man. Maybe Douglas will get some more much deserved accolades at the Oscars this year, which are coming on February 27.

Douglas was on Leno on Friday, and he told Jay that after going through cancer he appreciates life more. “I smell the roses. I wake up in the morning and each day is special.” There are rumors that Douglas is currently in talks with a publisher and may be working on an autobiography. That story seems to have originated in the Daily Mail and I wouldn’t put much stock in it, but I hope it’s true. I would love to read his memoir.

Here’s an interview with Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Hones on the red carpet. They say it’s a date night for them. I love Catherine’s dress!