The Home Edit's Clea Shearer Begins Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer: 'I Feel Pretty Decent'
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Clea Shearer has begun the next stage in her ongoing battle against breast cancer: chemotherapy.
The professional organizer — one of the co-founders of The Home Edit and stars of the hit Netflix series, Get Organized with the Home Edit — shared an update with Instagram followers on Thursday evening to mark her first day of the anti-cancer drug treatment.
Last month, Shearer revealed to PEOPLE exclusively that she has been diagnosed with invasive mammary carcinoma, an aggressive form of breast cancer. The 40-year-old mother of two underwent a 9-hour double mastectomy on April 7, learning in the process that the cancer has expanded to one of her lymph nodes, classifying it as stage 2.
Since then, she has continued to provide candid updates about her health on her social media pages, thanking fans along the way for their support, spending time with loved ones (including daughters Stella, 11, and Sutton, 8, as well as husband, photographer John Shearer), and insisting all the while that "cancer isn't going to keep me down."
RELATED: The Home Edit's Clea Shearer Reveals She Has Breast Cancer: 'If Anyone Can Crush Cancer, It's Me'
RELATED: The Home Edit's Joanna Teplin Gives Update on Clea Shearer's Breast Cancer Battle: 'She's Strong'
Thursday's post was as honest as her others. She explained in her caption that before starting chemo, she "started sleeping less [and] worrying more."
"[I] even had one big tantrum last night that I can only describe as a child who's next in line for a huge roller coaster, and last minute screams, 'I can't do this!! Let me off!'" she wrote. "No one was letting me off the ride, but everyone let me cry as long as I needed to. When I was done, I picked myself up, took a walk with the kids, and laughed at Sutton's jokes. There's no better medicine than a walk and a laugh."
Ever the organizer, Shearer said she arrived "with my chemo bag full of so many blankets, snacks, and supplies, that I'm sure it looked like we were planning on staying the week instead of 4 hours.
As seen in videos posted on The Home Edit's Instagram Story, she also had a care package from her kids. There, Suttton told her in a card to "kick cancer's booty" and Stella wrote, 'don't let chemo make you emo."
Her mom and husband by her side, Shearer then sat in the infusion room and started her treatment. "Once the infusion started, I began to relax," she said. "I was in a very comfy recliner (I'm going to need to name this one too) that even had massage and heat settings… and there were warm blankets and snacks! I read a book, watched Netflix, and then it was over."
"It doesn't help with the nerves that this treatment is called the Red Devil," she also wrote, joking, "When this is all over with, I'm going to work on a rebrand… that name sucks."
Shearer is now playing what she called "the very fun game of: 'Is this a side effect?' for the next 5 months." But she's taking it one day at a time.
"Right now I'm only focusing on today, and today I feel pretty decent!" she said. "I'll take the win where I can get it."
Netflix Joanna Teplin and Clea Shearer
Following the news of Shearer's diagnosis in April, Joanna Teplin — who co-founded The Home Edit with Shearer — stopped by Today to give an update on how her BFF was doing, telling Savannah Guthrie that she in positive spirits.
"She's doing well. She is just so strong and such a pillar of strength that I can't imagine anyone tackling cancer the way that she has," Teplin, 42, said. "She's just so incredible."
Asked if Shearer ever thought of keeping her diagnosis private, Teplin insisted Shearer "only knows one mode" and wanted to share what she was going through.
"[Clea's] a public person and she decided to make this no different," she said. "She felt like if she could do this for anybody and if there was something to show for this horrible thing that she has to go through, then it was all worth going public for."
"She has the best attitude," Teplin continued. "I can't imagine having the attitude that she has. She's like, 'If it's going to happen to someone, why not me?' instead of 'Why me?' And because she's able to have that fortitude and way of thinking about it, she's able to help so many other people. She's using this platform and the privilege of having help, having the support, having the emotional support — all those things — to bring awareness to others."
Courtesy Clea Shearer
Teplin and Shearer were both in New York City to film a segment on Today in February when she found two small lumps in her right breast during a self-exam.
"She said, 'I think I found something. I'm not sure what it is,' " Teplin recalled on the show in April. "And we just decided, 'We're not going to spiral yet. Let's get more information first.'
As Shearer explained to PEOPLE, she reached out to see her OBGYN immediately, but was told the soonest appointment was in May. Uncertain and anxious, she tried her primary care doctor, who, luckily, was able to order schedule her in for a mammogram within a few days.
"Thank God she's such an advocate for herself," Teplin said. "And she's now becoming an advocate for so many others to self-test and be aware from the start."
The Home Edit Collection
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Shearer and Teplin are known for orchestrating amazing makeovers for regular clients and celebrities like Chris Pratt and Reese Witherspoon (whose production company Hello Sunshine recently acquired The Home Edit), often with tight deadlines and under extremely stressful circumstances.
As fans of Get Organized and the pair's nearly 6 million Instagram followers know, Shearer is the crunch-time closer, shouting orders to their team and tackling the physical labor of the job to make sure everything is picture perfect. So when it comes to her outlook on her diagnosis and treatment, it should come as no surprise that she's facing it with determination and focus.
"I'm a fighter. If anyone can crush cancer, it is me," she told PEOPLE. "I'm literally afraid for cancer and I've got this. Even though I know that I'll be scared the night before, and I'm sure, in the first weeks of recovery, I'll be pretty grumpy, but it doesn't mean that I feel any less resolute about absolutely nailing it and putting cancer in my rearview."
