Let’s Be Real Housewives Style…with Dolores Catania

Published Sep 23, 2024, 4:00 AM

Everyone’s favorite Housewife, RHONJ’s Dolores Catania, is admitting to her own mistakes when it came to her health. Dolores reveals that plastic surgery took precedence over her mammograms. Then, things got real when she got “the call” from her doctor.

This is Let's be clear, who's Shannon Dherny? Hi everybody, I'm Dolores Catana from the Real Housewives of New Jersey and I'm excited to be hosted Let's be clear this week. If you've watched The Real Housewives of New Jersey, you may know that I've been a breast cancer advocate for several years. As a matter of fact, I've recently hosted my annual softball game charity game benefiting the main Monoites Medical Center's breast cancer treatment Clinic. It's an event that raises money and awareness for breast cancer near and dear to my heart, and it's grown over the years. Although I never met Shannon, I admired her strength and how open she was about her battle with breast cancer. Now, I just want to say a little something about Shannon. I always looked up to Shannon because she was a tough girl. She was someone who I didn't look at as a celebrity, although she was such a celebrity from nine oh two one oh. If you didn't watch nine oh two one oh, you just weren't normal growing up when I did, we were like the same age. It was the eighties and nineties, and she was even on Little House on the Prairie. I mean, she was just a force of nature, and she was unapologetically herself and she never compromised any conviction she had for anything, and in this business and especially at that time, that was something that was so rare to see. So I looked at Chen and not only as somebody who I loved to watch on TV, but somebody who I would have hung out with in high school, Like she was just like a friend of mine, like I would have sat next to in class, you know. And she never changed, and even I felt so relatable to her as she grew, she was still always very true to who she was, and she took a lot of hits, you know, during the years and now being in reality TV, I can't imagine the stress that was. Like she was a lot of times on an island by herself, and she was a lot of times known as the bad girl, But you know, I don't think that's anything about what she was. I looked at her as somebody who loved very deeply, who cared very deeply, who also hurt very deeply, and she just didn't stand back and just let anything happen that she didn't think was right. So although I never got to tell her this in person, for that part, which I'll get to, the other part that I want to thank her for, for that part alone, I want to say to you, Shannon, thank you. And it's sad that I'm not able to say this to you in person, but I feel in my heart that you're here. You're here in this podcast, and this is so much a part of you and your legacy. But there's a presence in talking on this right now to me, and I just want to say that, since I feel that you are here, thank you, and I love you. And I loved your relationship with your mom another relatable thing. I'm very close with my mom, and you resonated a very familiar relationship that I have also. And your mom loves you so much. And when you talk to her, Shan and I see the little girl in you. I saw the little girl in you. Like in one of the podcasts I watch, She's like, you were like mom, when did I start? Or just just when you spoke to your mom? You are the little You were the little girl at heart that people forgot to see because you're always so tough. And I also find that I think you were very much an EmPATH. Your love for horses, which my daughter also has another relatable thing. My daughter's very tough exterior, but animals grounded her and she had a love for horses that she found a very safe spot with and her equestrian riding. And that was like, you know something that I just always looked at you as somebody who was just the girl next door. And I love you for that. So thank you, Shannon, and thanks Mama Rosa for giving us. Shannon. You're a true mom and I look up to you very much for your strength and for keeping this going. Then fast forward, Shannon. Also, it was very open about her battle with breast cancer and how strong she was and to see her sometimes as as she was and not feeling well, she still came out and she was present and she was giving more of herself as she always did, you know. And I and that's kind of scary. You know, it's scary when you get that diagnosis. I had a scare not too long ago, a few years ago, and when that hits you, you're like, WHOA, when you get that call. I went for a mammogram, and to tell you the truth, a lot of women do not follow through with their appointments and their healthcare because they just don't. It's not on the forefront of our minds, right, And I was the culprit of that. You know, I had a friend. I went to a breast cancer event. It's the Pink Runway and it's for women who they asked me to come and co hosted, and it's for women who walk the runway after they've been through chemo and or while battling breast cancer and it makes them feel beautiful. They get dressed up, their hair, their makeup. And I just showed up to this event because of course I was asked to and it was a benefit and I love to be there whenever I can. And the guy running the event, who started it because his mom had passed away with breast cancer, Michael Brinkett, said to me after we had gotten very close, and I was just like, right away, I was talked. Once I saw this event, I saw the hell everybody had gone through, and I saw their love for the hospital and the doctors and the nurses, and I just became very close, very quick to this whole thing going on with breast cancer. But not before this, you know, it just hadn't affected me. It hadn't affected anyone in my life. Yes, through the years, I had seen some moms in school battle, but nobody I was that closed to at the time. And at the end of the event, Michael Brinkatt, who had we've become very close, goes, when's the last time you went for a mammogram, Dolores, And I couldn't remember. And I want to say when I did finally get my records, it had been five years, but shameful to me. In those five years, I had a facelift. I'll start from the top down. I had a facelift. I had a tummy tuck. I had liposuction, I had botox, I had lasers, I had been on diets. Anything that would have esthetically made me look better. I made the time for. So he insisted that I go, and I did, and I had a my mimmography and I also had a sonogram and they found a calcification. Now, doctor Giuliano, who is an angel on this earth, who found this needle pinpoint how to be the tip of the tweezers, that's how big the spot was found. It questioned it BIAPSI did it, And I mean I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's just say that I left there. I figured out routine mammogram, no big deal, and I looked down in my phone. I'm in the car on the way home, and I see two mist calls from the doctor, and my whole life started to flash before my eyes. And there was no reason for me to be leaving there and saying that, oh this is They're calling me two times for what did I didn't forget my keys, I'm driving, my phone's in my hand. I didn't forget my wallet, it's right here. And I'm going through all these things like why did I just get too missed calls right away? So they had called, and they said that there was, you know, reason for concern about this, and I had really, you know, started to think of all the dumb things I had done, and then I started to think. My life started to flash before my eyes, and I'm saying I did all this plastic surgery. I never took care of myself. I never I haven't gone from mammogram five years. Shame on me, Shame on me. What if I have a problem and what if I didn't go and get checked sooner when I could have prevented whatever is coming or whatever this may be. And it was just like a crippling fear. So then you know, of course they call their like come back, so I did. I went back, and she had explained to me that she didn't really have anything to go by. She didn't she couldn't tell me if it was new. She couldn't tell me if it had been there last year or the year before or the year before that. And that's another thing that can be a problem because unless you keep up with yourself, you won't know if it's something that could have been treated. Whatever. It's just a big, huge mistake then. So anyway, it was in a really tough spot. I had to go and it's the biopsy wasn't easy, and she's like, listen, I'm going to try to get the biopsy this way and hopefully we wouldn't have to go in invasively, and she was able to do it. And then it's waiting for the results. So I mean, it's what a week for results to come back, I want to say. And in that week, the fear that you that you're overcome by, and the emotions that you go through, the regrets, thinking about your life, thinking about your kids maybe like you know, I've I've raised my kids. I've been a single mother for so long. Am I going to be able to watch them? Is something wrong? Am I? Am I going to die? You know? Do I have to go through all cancer treatments? What's going to happen to me? Am I going to be able to see my kids' lives that I've worked so hard to get them through to where they are now? Am I going to see them live out their lives and see grandchildren? It's all these things, and then you think about the people that maybe you got in a fight with and you didn't make up with, Like should I call it? It's just an overflow of fear and emotions and to experience that is just horrifying. So now I'm filming during all this, and I don't want to tell anyone because a lot like me is I internalize things. I go through things myself. I always have, And I didn't want to tell my kids. I didn't want to tell my friends, you know, I wanted to keep it to myself. I didn't want my mom to worry, and I just I did. I kept it to myself off and I went through all this time waiting all this time. A week, it's not a long time. It feels like a year. And then closer to when the results were coming, I did finally tell my kids, and you know my mom. I don't think I did tell my mom. I did tell my kids. I told my friends, and then they decided to film my results. So when doctor Gus called, I'm sorry, doctor Giuliano called, she didn't tell me right away. She's like, uh, do you want to you know, do you want to know right now? Am I okay to say this? Are you alone? Because there's hippa and everything else. I said, no, no, no, I'm totally fine with hearing these results on camera. We're filming it. That's fine. So doctor Juliano finally says it's negative, and I was just like so relieved. And I remember remember my son standing there and saying, you know, mom, this could have gone such a different way for us. Our lives in this moment could be so different with the if the results were a different way. And I realized how lucky I was, And I realized in that moment that I cannot sit back and not push for people and beg people and get it out there for people to go for their checkups. And doctor Giuliano always says a mammogram is like a seatbelt. You may not need it, but when you do, it'll save your life. And I cannot stress that enough. Early prevention is the best perfection protection, because of course we all know the earlier, the more treatable it is. Now had that not been benign, had I had breast cancer and not been to it for a mammogram in five years, my chances of surviving that would have been much less like if at all. So this softball fundraiser I do every year has become such an outlet for me to show and to be an advocate and awareness for women to go for their checkups. And through this, through that airing on TV, what I had gone through, and through my annual softball game, which coming up next year will be my fifth year doing it has saved so many lives. And Shannon also, I'm sure has saved so many lives. And also another thing that Shannon has done was had did with her podcast and going through all her emotions and going through this journey and sharing it with every is to other let other people know that are going through it that they're not alone and That is so important because I'm sure that's another feeling that you would go through, like having cancer and then having to tell your family and then sharing it with people that don't understand what you're going through. I can't understand what it's like to feel like to be told that I have cancer. I can't, and that's why I feel like it must be a lonely place when you're diagnosed like that, to have to sit across from somebody else that doesn't have it or can't understand those emotions and tell them. So it's so important for people to share what they're going through, and also by sharing it, letting somebody else know, hey, look this, it doesn't cancer doesn't discriminate. Breast cancer does not discriminate. We need to stay on top of things our body. Also, we need to listen to it. I had met a young girl at the Pink Runway. She wasn't even eligible for a mammogram. She was too young, and they're finding cancer you're younger and younger. But her boyfriend found the lump and it was a very aggressive cancer. She's doing fine now. She had went through hell, but the fact that she found it early enough again, it saved her life. So there's also the fear factor of women being afraid of the results. Is it gonna hurt? Is a mammo gram gonna hurt? When I hear someone say to me I'm afraid to go, I have to be blunt with them, But I said, but are you afraid to die? Are you more afraid to go and possibly find something that you could be treated with than you are of being afraid to find out that you waited too long and now you can't be treated. So what happens with this baseball game? Because it's such a happy my annual Maimoniti football game. Because it's such a happy event, it kind of puts a lighter sheds more of a like a lighthearted thing on getting your mammogram. You know, they speak to other people at the event. A lot of people become friends, a lot of breast cancer survivors, a lot of women going through treatment, a lot of girls who watched the show who then went and pushed their moms to go or push their friends to go. And till this day, I'm still arguing with a few handful of friends that still are afraid to go for a mammogram and won't go and I want to shake them and say, what the are you doing? Just go. I'll go with you, I'll sit with you, I'll hold your hands. And you know, I find in Maymonites there's no excuse. They will take you, whether you have insurance or not. May Breast Care Center is so kind. They turn no one away. As a matter of fact, Maymonites Hospital has been open over one hundred years, seven days a week, twenty four hours a day, and they've never turned away anyone. So honestly, I just want everyone to know that, please go, Please go for your annual checkups. Please self care, do your exams. There's so much help out there. Google it. How do I do a self care exam? I don't care how old you are, if you're in your twenties, give yourself your exams. Go to the gynecologists. That's another thing. I'm guilty. I'm going to tell you right now, I have to make a gynocologist appointment. I haven't gone there either. I've been I'm so busy. I missed my last year's annual appointment. So you know what, as soon as I hang up with you, I'm making that appointment. But yeah, sometimes also you'll have a friend that may have cancer and you don't know what to say to them. Just be there, I was saying. Last night, I saw something on Instagram and it was about a parent losing a child, and I forget what celebrity it was. It was a comedian who I was not familiar with, but one of his friends showed up at the house and after they had found out after their child had passed away, and he said, what are you doing here? And his friend said, I'm just here, And that guy said, I just needed somebody to be there. There's nothing you could say to somebody, right What could you possibly say to someone who's just been diagnosed with cancer? But you could physically be sitting next to them. You could sit there, you could let them talk. Sometimes words there aren't the right words. I'm not always the most articulate person. I don't know the right words to say because it's not something I experienced. But being someone who cares about someone, all you need to do is just sit there. Like I learned that from my mom. There's been times I've been angry in life, or I've been going through something, whether it was my divorce or having a hard time raising my kids, or maybe if it was financial trouble or job trouble, and I would vent on my mom. Now, growing up in a strict Italian household, you don't vent, you don't talk back to mom. You're not allowed to be in a bad mood. But when it was time for me for my mom to understand that I needed to be in that place, she just let me be and take out whatever I needed to on her. And I've learned to be that way for other people in my life, whether it be my kids, whether it be friends of mine who are going battling cancer right now, or whatever it was, whatever, a really good person and a really good support system is there to take the brunt of whatever that person can handle. Just throw it on me. I'm here for you. That's the best I can do. So I just, you know, there's just been so much, and I find that I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's my age, I don't know if it's the environmental things going on in this world. I don't know what it is. But I just hear more and more cancer diagnosis often, like it's just every day you hear somebody else is sick, And I'm like saying to myself. Is it the food? Is it the stress? I mean, what's going on in this world. I think that we also it's not just about keeping up with your everyday treatments. It's also about lifestyle. I think we have to be very careful about what we're putting into our body and what our diet is. And when I say diet, I don't just mean diet in the way of food. I mean toxic diet. I mean what we watch on TV, the lack of rest, just the things in life that are just unhealthy. It's not just food. It's not just what you drink. It's not what you consume, it's what you let in. It's your energy, I know. And not everybody believes in that stuff, right, I didn't until my later years in life. Like growing up, in the times that we grew up, there was no such thing as good energy, you know, we just didn't talk like that. But now later in life, I mean, there's such a better quality of life, and there's so much more knowledge out there that we could find to calm ourselves, to realize that stress and harboring resentment and hate and the gossip and the fighting in the world, and what you let into your life actually settles at different places in your body. This is not new news. This is things that have been around for years, hundreds of years, where we've been warned about this but maybe didn't pay attention to it. So I also do believe that a big part of getting physically sick in life is stress. Stress will kill you. That's not just a saying, and like holding on to things, not letting things go, even having a lot of clutter in your house, that's unhealthy. So I've also found like meditation for health. I'm really going to try to now that we're taking a little break from filming, I'm really going to try to educate myself more on these things and share it more on my platforms. Also, I mean, let's talk about menopause right now. That's another thing that could drive you crazy. There is just so much we don't know as women about things that affect us as women. There's so little to know about menopause, the mental health, anxiety it brings on, the waking, all things like that. And I'm just now taking my platform, I'm going to take it to a different direction. And Shannon was a great example of how to do this. So again, another thing I want to thank her for and just you know, whatever I can do, So, you know, I just want to leave everybody with my experience in my scare how lucky I was to say, well, I dodged a bullet this time, but maybe not next time. And I think it's all of our duty to push people around us that we love, or even just sometimes you meet people in the hair salon and be like, hey, you know, yeah, I'm going for my mamogram. When's the last time you do one for yours? And like just bring it up, just try to. I think as much as we can advocate and bring awareness to breast cancer, women's health, just having a healthier, happier lifestyle. There's so much craziness in this world right now. I think if more people got together to spread positivity and health and all the good things instead of the nasty gossip. I think that's what our job is here to do now, and that's what I'm going to be working on. So I want to thank everybody for having me and listening. And I love you, Shannon, I love you, Mama Rosa, I love you and thank you. And I just hope all health and happiness and good energy for everyone

Let's Be Clear with Shannen Doherty

Let’s Be Clear… a new podcast from Shannen Doherty.   The actress will open up like never before in 
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