How Danielle Fishel’s life changed after the diagnosis of breast cancer (exclusive)

Daniel Fishel gets candid about how breast cancer has affected her life so far—and what her future might look like.

It’s like, ‘Wow. Even for stage 0 cancer, my whole life has changed,'” he said. A boy meets the world the 43-year-old alum told PEOPLE on Monday, Oct. 28, at the film’s Los Angeles premiere Wizards Beyond Waverly Placewhere she was noted for directing several episodes.

“My life turned into numerous appointments with doctors and constant examinations. And this will be the monitoring of side effects,” the actress continues. “It’s not fun, but it is what it is. And with all that in mind, I’m very lucky and I’m going to live, which is the most important thing.”

Fishel shared that she was an early form of breast cancer was diagnosed called ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) during the Aug. 19 episode of her podcast The pod meets the worldwhich she runs together with a former colleague A boy meets the world stars Strong rider and Will Friedl.

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“It still blows my mind,” she tells PEOPLE. “Because I remember when I was diagnosed very early… someone said to me, ‘I just want you to know, I’m so glad you caught your cancer early. But there is no easy cancer.” ”

“At the time,” Fischel continues, “before I had surgery or anything, I was like, ‘Well, I don’t really know what that means, but I’ll remember.’ Of course, even stage 0 cancerI had to have two operations.”

The actress is also “99% sure” she will need radiation therapy, which she says will be “over 20 days, five days a week for four weeks straight.”

“And then I will also need to undergo hormone therapy. I will have to take an estrogen blocker for at least five years,” explains Fishel.

She asked how the husband was Jensen Karp supported her during her journey, Fishel says he “was incredible,” accompanying her “to every doctor’s appointment.”

“He was there when I had emotional breakdowns and needed to cry,” she says. “And he will say: “What are the tears about? Do you want to talk about them? What is it? Do you just want to vent or is this about a specific thing we can talk about?’ He’s really great.”

The 44-year-old Karp’s support also extended to how they communicate Fishel’s diagnosis to their two young sons: Adler5 and Keaton3.

“I’m very proud that my kids’ lives haven’t changed that much,” she tells PEOPLE. “Maybe I’m overreacting, but I want them to still be able to go to baseball practice, karate, school, and their friends’ birthdays.”

“And so if I couldn’t take them, he did,” she adds of Karp. “Really, he was great.”