Murphy revealed that she was getting her breasts removed in April after learning that she carries the BRCA 2 gene, which puts her at a higher risk of developing breast cancer. Her mother is currently in remission from her own breast cancer diagnosis in 2014.
Murphy, who finished in fifth place during Sean Lowe‘s season, first posted about her upcoming surgery on Sunday.
“In a few hours I’ll be back in the hospital completing a task I knew I’d set out to do the moment I found out I was BRCA 2 positive,” she wrote. “Knowledge is power and I feel powerful knowing I kicked cancer’s ass before it could kick mine.”
In the time between her double mastectomy and implant surgery, doctors placed an expander in place of her breasts, which stretch the tissue to make room for an implant. Murphy then received regular injections of a salt water solution to inflate the expander.
“In just 83 days, I went from a completely flat chest in horrific pain to somewhere around a comfortable C-cup. Well…as comfortable as I can be in these expanders. The best way I can describe them is like two big boulders on my chest,” she said.
Murphy explained that she actually had no input on her final breast size — it was up to her doctor.
“My plastic surgeon said he tried many different variations and sizes and after consulting every woman in the hospital he decided on 500 CC implants, which is actually smaller than my expander size when you take into consideration those CCs plus the bulky expander,” Murphy said. “Dr. Wright, thank you for ridding me of those boulders and giving me my normalcy back!”
This article originally appeared on PEOPLE.