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"  In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month, we spoke to actress Maura Tierney about her own battle with the disease. Tierney recently launched the Chemotherapy: Myth or Fact Campaign with Amgen, which aims to debunk common misconceptions cancer patients and caregivers might have about chemotherapy. We talked to the actress, who says describes her initial reaction to her diagnosis as a &amp;quot;distraught; very, very scary; a life-shifting moment,&amp;quot; about her own experience with the treatment and why she chose to share her story. What it felt like to go through chemotherapy: &amp;quot;You know, it&amp;#039;s scary. My ultimate point is, everybody is different, but it&amp;#039;s much more tolerable than I had anticipated. It&amp;#039;s not easy or fun. I had this hugely anxious anticipation, but it wasn&amp;#039;t born out to be that.&amp;quot; Finding a support system: &amp;quot;I had great doctors. From the beginning, my doctor said &amp;#039;There&amp;#039;s bad news, and there&amp;#039;s good news. The good news is that you&amp;#039;re going to be okay.&amp;#039; He told me from the start that this was something that was treatable. That goes a long way to help you feel better. And I have great friends.&amp;quot; How chemo affected her everyday life: &amp;quot;It takes awhile \u2013 everybody is different \u2014 but for me the whole process took a couple of hours once a week. I was fatigued (it takes a toll on you), but I was able to do most things. I could to walk on the beach, ride my bike, and go out to dinner. Dealing with hair loss: &amp;quot;Being bald is no fun. It just happens; your hair falls out in kind of a weird way \u2013 sort of like you&amp;#039;re shedding \u2014 so at a certain point you&amp;#039;re just like, I have to shave my head. It&amp;#039;s very vulnerable because your hair is perceived as strength or vitality. It&amp;#039;s scary, but it&amp;#039;s [a reaction to] the thing that&amp;#039;s helping you get better, so you deal with it. I didn&amp;#039;t wear a wig; some people do. It takes awhile to grow back because even when you finish your treatments, those drugs stay in you for awhile. It takes several months for the toxicity to recede. I finished my treatment in December, so I would say by June, I had like a Sinead O&amp;#039;Connor hairdo.&amp;quot;  How cancer has affected her outlook on life: &amp;quot;I think it&amp;#039;s still evolving. I haven&amp;#039;t figured out how exactly it&amp;#039;s going to affect my perspective. I finished my treatment two years ago, so my energy&amp;#039;s back.&amp;quot;  Maura in her own words:  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.redbookmag.com/life/interviews/a14489/maura-tierney-breast-cancer/>