Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi recalled having “a breakdown” after receiving her stage I cervical cancer diagnosis.
“Like, ‘Oh, my God, what am I gonna do? Gotta get my will in place. What’s gonna happen?’ Planning my funeral. I was being so dramatic,” Polizzi, 38, said during a Tuesday, May 19, appearance on the “Let’s Be Honest” podcast. “Then, I did research.”
While it was “terrifying” for Polizzi to get the diagnosis, she noted that it’s “so common for women” to have cervical cancer.
“No one really talks about it,” she continued. “I’m gonna be OK, because there’s things I have to do. I’ll be fine, because stage I is the best case scenario.”
Polizzi has to get a hysterectomy. While she doesn’t have an exact date, the Jersey Shore star is aiming for the summer.
“It’s scary when you hear the word cancer. You’re like, ‘Oh, my God, I’m dying. I have to do all these things, and my body’s gonna change,’” she added.
Initially, Polizzi had no plans to make her cancer diagnosis public. However, she told the world in a TikTok video posted in February as a way to raise awareness — and get some support.
“I didn’t think I was going to tell anyone, just my close family, and that’s it,” she said on Tuesday. “I needed someone to be relatable and talk about their experience. I went on TikTok, and there’s just so many women saying, ‘I just got diagnosed with stage I this is what I have to do.’ Other TikToks saying how they got a hysterectomy and it wasn’t that bad.”
Seeing this pushed Polizzi to tell her story.
“I literally looked for these women to make me feel better,” Polizzi continued. “So, why not talk about it? Because nobody talks about it, and it’s so common.”
Polizzi shared that she’s holding off on scheduling her hysterectomy until the summer because of work.
During her Good Morning America interview last month, Polizzi admitted that she has mixed feelings about the hysterectomy.
“I know I’m done with kids, [but] just knowing that you can’t [have more], I don’t know, it made me feel like I’m not a mom,” she explained to GMA’s Lara Spencer on April 23. “Even though I’m done.”
Polizzi shares three kids — Lorenzo, 13, Giovanna, 11, and Angelo, 6 — with husband Jionni LaValle. They asked whether she was “dying” after hearing about her cancer diagnosis.
“I’m like, ‘No, I’m not dying. I’m just sick. And I need to figure it out, and then Mommy will be fine,’” she said.
