Why Clea Shearer Had to Undergo a Sudden Eighth Surgery amid Breast Cancer Journey: ‘This One Threw Me for a Loop’ (Exclusive)

In November 2024, Clea Shearer celebrated what she believed was the seventh and final surgery of her breast cancer journey. Looking back, she calls it a “fool’s errand” — because in January 2025 she had to undergo an unexpected eighth procedure.

“It never ends,” she tells PEOPLE. “It's all-consuming.”

The professional organizer and star of Get Organized with the Home Edit, 43, was diagnosed with stage 2 invasive mammary carcinoma, an aggressive form of breast cancer, in March 2022. She endured months of chemotherapy and radiation and six surgeries, including a double mastectomy and removal of her ovaries.

Shearer was declared cancer-free in November 2022 and underwent breast reconstruction surgery two years later.

However, on Jan. 24, 2025, she was completely caught off guard by disappointing news during her routine oncology appointment and breast exam.

“[My doctor] noticed that my skin was kind of tearing, breaking at the incision site and he was like, ‘Have you noticed this?’ And I said, ‘To be honest, no,’” Shearer recalls, noting that it wasn’t visible unless she looked in a mirror. “He sent a picture to my surgeon. My surgeon said to come right in. The second he looked at it, he was like, ‘What are you doing on Monday? We've got to get you in immediately.’”

Related: The Home Edit’s Clea Shearer Undergoes Unexpected Surgery: ‘My Heart Sank’

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Shearer learned that the wound at her incision site had opened all the way to her breast implant, and her surgeon needed to open it up to make sure it wasn’t infected.

“This was my eighth surgery in just a couple short years. So sadly, I am very good at this, but still this one threw me for a loop,” she says. She went into surgery on Jan. 27. “They opened it up and they cleaned the implant, cleaned the cavity, and sewed me back up. It went really well.”

It’ll be at least another week until Shearer learns if the surgery was successful. If not, she’ll require a much more complicated surgery in the coming months.

“I'm trying to not get my hopes up that this worked and it’s done and everything's great,” she admits. “My doctor told me to emotionally prepare for needing another [surgery]. So I'm kind of going at this with optimism, but with one foot in.”

“I'm not going to celebrate that this was my last surgery like I did last time,” she adds. “That was kind of a fool's errand. I'm cautiously optimistic, but this time I'm steeling myself.”

Related: Why Clea Shearer Is Grateful to Put Her Hair Up — and What Her Kids Learned From Her Breast Cancer (Exclusive)

Overall, Shearer emphasizes that she still tries to focus on positive outcomes with her health.

“I try to just think about the finish line… and hopefully there will be one,” she says. “All of these surgeries — plus chemo and radiation — have definitely exhausted me, I will say. But otherwise, I feel like physically I'm doing well. I think mentally I'm doing pretty well too.”

“When I got diagnosed, I told myself, I am going to make my cancer purposeful,” she adds. “I am not going to let it take me down, and I'm going to let it be something that turns into a gift that I can give other people. That was my goal then, and it’s my goal now.”

And Shearer is doing just that in the upcoming episodes of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition alongside co-host Joanna Teplin. In the two-part season finale, the team creates a wellness center next to Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center in Gilbert, Ariz., for cancer patients and families who would otherwise need to travel long distances to return home.

With such a personal connection to the build, Shearer tells PEOPLE that she couldn’t help but “cry hysterically.” She says it was both difficult and beautiful being around patients who were actively battling cancer, taking her “right back to where she was” when she was going through it herself.

Related: The Home Edit's Clea Shearer Celebrates Being Cancer Free: 'I Haven't Stopped Crying'

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“Ultimately I think that community is the only way to get through cancer, and I think this wellness center really brings that together,” she explains. “We're actually creating a communal space, a place where you have neighbors, where you have friends, where you don't have to feel sick every single minute. I think it's just really crucial. And it's so rewarding to be able to directly impact people in this way.”

Additionally, Shearer partnered with Eli Lilly for the Extreme Makeover project to help raise awareness for early-stage high-risk breast cancer and encourage cancer patients to advocate for themselves.

“It’s very, very close to my heart,” she tells PEOPLE. “This just speaks to all the good that we can do and share people's stories, spread awareness, get people really involved in thinking about their own health.”

The two-part season finale of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition airs Feb. 13 and Feb. 20 at 8/7c on ABC and will be streaming on Hulu. More on Clea Shearer at CleasStory.com.

Read the original article on People