The Real Housewives of Miami star Guerdy Abraira is “feeling good” one month after completing her last round of chemotherapy.
“Healthwise, to be honest, I feel almost back to myself,” Abraira, 45, exclusively told Us Weekly while chatting about the new season of RHOM. “Yes, the steroid stuff — I gained a couple [of] pounds, 15 to be exact. But you know what? Who’s counting, because I’m alive. I’m well, and I’m now a breast cancer survivor. So, I’ve got to count my blessings.”
Last month, Abraira — who was first diagnosed with breast cancer in March — celebrated the end of her treatment journey by ringing the bell, a tradition for cancer patients as they achieve major milestones in their recovery.
The moment felt like a major “release” for Abraira.
“It was a release of … all this worrisome energy that I had and just this, ‘What if this?’ and, ‘What if that?’ And I just felt so free,” she told Us. “It felt so freeing to be me again and a new version of myself. So now, it’s kind of like, I take no BS from no one, no more. No BS from no one, no more. That should be my new tagline: ‘I take no BS from nobody.’”
She added that she is releasing “what no longer serves me,” explaining: “That is allowing me to be way more transparent in the way I feel and not internalizing other people’s woes. So, a lot of [the] time, I felt like I’m a fixer. So, I was like, ‘Oh no, I’ll handle it for you. I’ll help you with this.’ And then you take on this stress for what purpose? Why?”
Amid her breast cancer journey, Abraira learned that it was OK to “be a little selfish,” a piece of advice she was given by her costar Julia Lemigova’s wife, Martina Navratilova. “That was really, honestly, something that was hard to do, but now I’m doing it very well,” she added.
Fans will see the ups and downs of Abraira’s health struggles play out on RHOM season 6, which premieres on November 1.
“For me, it was kind of like, ‘OK, I know, as I’m told by the doctors, I’m going to be OK in the end. I’m going to go through a lot of pain, but it’s going to be — I’m gonna stay standing,’” she told Us. “So, because it wasn’t a bigger cancer — I said, ‘OK, use me. Use me, God. I will be the one to show this journey.’ Because a lot of people — they going to hiding like it’s the plague. And I’m like, ‘When I Google brown skin radiation burns, where are the pictures?’ Everyone’s hiding. No one wants to show [it].”
The decision to share “the good, the bad [and] the ugly” of her journey on the small screen was one Guerdy made with her husband, Russell Abraira, and their sons Miles, 14, and Liam, 9.
“Russell was behind me a hundred percent. And boy, was he there like a bear,” she gushed. “He was 1,000 percent more than I ever even thought that he could even be. So, it was really amazing and I know I’m blessed to have had him as my caretaker.”
When it came to receiving support from her RHOM costars, Guerdy teased that fans will have to tune in to see which ladies stood by her more than others. “Some people surprise me just because — and I can’t judge people for the way they handle things. Everyone’s gone through their own things in life and that’s giving them the reason to be who they are today,” she revealed. “But it was surprising. So yes, surprised by some people in not the best light and it is what it is and it ain’t what it ain’t.”
The Real Housewives of Miami season 6 premieres on Bravo Wednesday, November 1, at 9 p.m. ET.
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
