Katie Thurston is now in a "medically induced menopause" amid her cancer battle

She wrote on Instagram: "I slept like s*** because I'm now in medically induced menopause, which means I get hot flashes. My medicine makes me so dehydrated. My lips have been chapped for what feels like two weeks straight.

"It's this game of catch up and trying to make sure I get enough water, which I was already bad at before medication.

"Now, it's like a true task every day to force myself to consume water!"

Despite her health woes, the 'Bachelorette' star recently insisted that she is she still trying to be "optimistic".

Reflecting on the "moments" of thinking she's dying, she said on 'Uncomfortable Convos': "I think that comes from reading from other people's experiences. Just like others, there's just a lot of unknown. People just aren't experienced with cancer. "You usually hear stage 4, you hear that it's spread to the liver, and I think automatically people think you have a short time to live. "That might be very much true [for some people]. For me, I'm trying to be very optimistic and feel that's not the case for me. Not once has my doctor made it sound like that's the case for me. "The medication and the route that we're going has been very positive for people."

Katie - who married Jeff Arcuri shortly after her diagnosis - admitted she experienced "the worst feeling" ever when she was told she had cancer.

She said: "I will say, I cried in a way that I've never heard myself cry. It was just devastated. "Beyond anything I've ever felt before. Probably the worst feeling of my life, if I'm being honest." The 34-year-old reality star is still "processing" her diagnosis and how much her life has changed over the last few years.

Asked if she is grieving "the life you dreamt of living" following her diagnosis, she said: "I don't know. I'm still processing, I think. "It is a weird reflection of 2020, getting on reality TV and working at a bank and how simple my life almost seemed - even though it was very chaotic. Everything I have experienced, I guess, prepared me for this moment."

After going through "a lot of hard stuff in life", cancer is "just another battle" for Katie and she's ready to face the tough times ahead.

She added: "I f****** win battles. I fight so hard, and this will be the hardest battle of my life, for sure, but I've never thought I wouldn't get through it. I've never thought that I would not see the other side. So that's what I'm hoping to do."

Katie hopes she still has at least 20 years to live.

She said: "They measure it in five-year increments. "It's a weird thing to say but I feel like at least I got five years. Truly, I'd like to think I have 20 or more, given medical advancements and stuff."