Katie Couric is not giving up without a fight.
The journalist gave fans an update on how she is doing nearly a week after she publicly revealed that she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a lumpectomy.
"I'm feeling just fine," the 65-year-old told anchors Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie on Today Oct. 3. "I finished radiation last week. They said it makes you tired. I was actually not too tired from it."
Couric, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in July, said she underwent the lumpectomy that same month and will now go on aromatase inhibitors, which will work to "suppress estrogen."
The former Today anchor said she learned about her diagnosis during a routine mammogram, which she planned to document and share with her fans to encourage women to get their yearly check-ups.
"I went in with my phone camera and I was going to share it with my followers and people who read my newsletter and go to the website to say, ‘Don't forget,'" Couric noted. "'I forgot. I don't want you all to.'"
"So, when my breast radiologist Susan Drossman said, ‘Can you turn off your phone?' I was like, ‘Uh-oh, what does that mean?' And she said, ‘I think there is something we really need to biopsy and I want to do it today.' So, I thought, ‘Oh my god, you must be kidding me.'"
Couric said her doctor called the next day and told her that her biopsy results came back as cancer. "I was pretty stunned," she added. "And I think those words, ‘it's cancerous' or ‘you have cancer,' do stop you in your tracks. But she told me it was treatable, we needed to have a plan. So, I went from feeling shocked to not that shocked to relieved."
The New York Times best-selling author—who shares daughters Ellie, 31, and Caroline (Carrie), 26, with late ex-husband Jay Monahan—said she waited a few days to call and tell her daughters so she could process the news.
"I was very reassuring," Couric noted. "But I saw them, their faces, you know, it's just hard to deliver that news no matter how you do it. But I assured them that I was going to be fine, and Carrie came with me when I got my lumpectomy, when I was being wheeled into the operating room she was singing, The arms of an angel.' She is so funny. They have been incredibly supportive."
Couric is now talking to Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro about getting widespread medical coverage for women undergoing further testing. She is also using her experience to encourage women to get their mammograms done annually.
"I am not a doctor and I'm trying not to play one on TV but I think you should go every year," she said on Today. "Talk to your doctor. I think women have to advocate for their own health."
Couric added, "I am so glad because I really—I just want to share what I have learned with other women and, hopefully, keep them healthy and happy."
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