You know Big Ang as the larger-than-life, tough-talking, fun-loving friend on Mob Wives. This is a side of her you've never seen. She only allowed our cameras to follow her very personal and deeply moving battle with Stage 4 lung and brain cancer. From diagnosis to treatment, an intimate and revealing look at a woman determined to survive.
On how she felt the moment the doctors gave her the diagnosis, Big Ang shares: "I was like, I couldn't hear, what they were saying. I couldn't even understand. I felt like I was deaf. 'You have stage four brain cancer and we don't know how this happened.' I'm like, 'I can't hear. I just can't even hear this.' They said that you have to--they're like, 'We're sorry, we don't know but now you have to go through another doctor, you have to find a brain doctor, a lung, an oncology, a chemo.' I was like, 'Oh, this is going too fast for me.' Now I'm just hysterical."
On how she's coping with her new diagnosis, Big Ang says: "I stay positive. I try to stay positive. I look at my kids and my grandchildren and I know how much they need me. My kids, my daughter lives with me with her kids and her husband so I'm very close to my grandchildren. My son's kids always sleep over."
On how she felt at the time of her interview with Dr. Oz, Big Ang shares:
Dr. Oz: So physically, just today, this moment, are you okay?
Big Ang: ... Sometimes..
Dr. Oz: When you're not okay, what are you feeling?
Big Ang: Depressed ..
Dr.Oz: It's alright. You take your time. Just in case.
Big Ang: Okay
Dr. Oz: They're clean
Big Ang: Thank you
Dr. Oz: You let me know when you're ready
Big Ang:.. Alright, I'm ready ..
Dr. Oz: You're a strong woman, you really are.
Big Ang: No, I don't know, sometimes I feel.. I'm going to be fine, then sometimes I just don't think I am
On her relationship with her husband, Big Ang shares: "You know what I felt he never stepped up to the plate, so I was done with it. I feel now it's too late, 'bye I rather be by myself'. I been taking care of everything since I been married to him. I don't need it. So, I rather be alone. And I've, that's what I did."
On her last surgery, Big Ang commented:
Big Ang: They did the surgery, ten hours, on April a week after I was diagnosed. One week. It was, like, right away. It was blocking my airway. They couldn't even intubate me 'cause the tumor was so big. It took two hours for them to get the pipe down
Dr. Oz - Oh, that's precarious.
Big Ang: And I was up.
Dr. Oz - You were awake the whole time?
Big Ang: When they were trying to do it. It was the worst. Then 10 hours. They remove all the lymph nodes and the tumor that one time. Then two months later they give me the second surgery and did the left side and removed all the lymph nodes and they said I had no cancer.
Dr. Oz - So let's go back. Let's just stay on this for one second. That's part of the way you make sense of stuff is to break it up a little bit. I understand that when you were diagnosed, you also did something that's a big deal. You stopped smoking.
Big Ang: The--the first--as soon as I went, March 30th, they said you have throat cancer I left two of the packs of cigarettes right in Columbian garbage pail outside.
Photo Credit: Sony Pictures Television
VIDEO CLIPS OF DR. OZ AND BIG ANG:
Clip 1: On how she's coping - https://goo.gl/Fq40zl
Clip 2: The moment the doctors gave her the news - https://goo.gl/rcegxh
Clip 3: On how she felt with her diagnosis - https://goo.gl/XdK935
Clip 4: On her relationship with her husband - https://goo.gl/FeANFx
Clip 5: On her last surgery - https://goo.gl/t4LlC0
Video Credit: ZoCo Productions, LLC.
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