Danielle Fishel: ‘It hurts to wake up’ after 20 rounds of radiation

Daniel Fishel has officially completed her breast cancer treatment — but not without some painful side effects.
Fishel, 43, revealed that she was “officially” out of treatment during the episode on Monday, January 13. “Under Meets the World” podcast However, she now struggles with painful side effects after 20 rounds of radiation.
“I’m officially done with radiation,” she told her colleagues and Boy meets world castors Strong rider and Will Friedlbefore clarifying that she has “officially finished what is considered active cancer treatment.” Fishel announced her diagnosis ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), a form of breast cancer, in August 2024.
“I did 15 rounds of radiation to the whole breast and then five rounds of targeted radiation, which just means they focus on a very small area where my cancer was, versus treating the whole breast,” she explained.
“It will help greatly reduce my chances of relapse, which is always good news, but boy am I feeling the effects… Physically, I have a really bad sunburn,” Fishel continued, before adding sarcastically, “I also have a rash on the top of the sunburn, which is just great.”
Fishel, known for her portrayal of Topanga Lawrence Boy meets worldtold her hosts that radiation therapy was “relatively easy. You don’t really do anything. You just lie down.’
However, her recovery from radiation turned out to be a little more difficult. She went on to describe her post-treatment side effects, saying “it hurts to wear a bra, it hurts not to wear a bra. It just hurts to sleep on my side, it hurts to sleep, period. It hurts not to sleep.”
On top of all that, she said, “It’s really itchy, and besides, you can’t scratch it because if you even touch it close, it makes you want to cry.”
Despite the pain, Fishel still tries to look on the bright side. “You know what? It won’t last forever,” she said. “Physically, I have to get better every day. As for being tired, I’m really, really tired.’
Her doctors also told her she would start to feel better in “two to three months” and to “work and drink water.” Fishel joked about the doctor’s orders, “Excuse me, do you want me to get tired and take care of myself?” However, she confirmed that she “started working out”.
“I trained yesterday. I’m going to work out again on Friday because he said that working out and drinking water is helping my body get rid of all the radiation damage,” she continued.
In addition, Fishel told her hosts that she would begin tamoxifen, a hormone therapy, once she began to recover from radiation. “They didn’t want to burden me with negative side effects,” she stated.
Last year Fischel moved two successful lumpectomy surgeries to remove the cancer.
“There is no evidence of disease, so the surgery was successful and got the cancer out of my body,” she told Today.com in October 2024 after the procedures. “But they call cancer a journey for a reason. It’s not just going in and doing at least one procedure and you’re done.”
It was after that surgery that Fishel began radiation therapy, revealing that at the time she was under “constant monitoring,” which included mammograms every three to six months and the possibility of an annual MRI.
“I was so lucky that I caught the cancer so early because I went and had my annual mammogram on time,” she said at the time. “I was like, ‘Great. I caught it early. I can finish it soon.” But in reality, nothing is finished. And it was an emotional and mental process.”