Dawson’s Creek actress Busy Philipps diagnosed with brain tumor aged 47
The actress revealed that she has privately undergone two life-saving procedures to remove the brain tumor, and is 'grateful to be alive'.
Speaking with People magazine, she described the last six months as the 'weirdest' of her entire life.
Busy Phillips, 47, admitted she only got the Prenuvo scan - a full-body MRI that checks for more than 500 conditions - that led to the shocking discovery, after reading about it on Instagram.
"I didn’t know why I wanted to get this scan except for the fact that I just did," she admitted.
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Despite not presenting any of the obvious symptoms of having a tumor, doctors later informed the star: "This is a real tumor, and it’s inside your brain. And Busy, it’s got to come out."
The mom-of-two noted that she was 'hyperventilating and trying to breathe' upon hearing the devastating news.
The actress revealed that she was diagnosed with a grade 2 oligodendroglioma, a rare and slow-growing tumor, often found in people aged between 30 and 50, in February.
Telling her eldest daughter Birdie about the discovery, she recalled saying: "I just kept saying to her, 'Birdie, you’re just not in the movie where your mom dies your senior year of high school. That’s just not the movie that you’re in. I promise you."
She later underwent a five-hour procedure, during which the mass in her brain, which measured 2.6 centimeters, was removed and biopsied.
Speaking with the outlet, Dr. Alexandra Miller, Philipps' neuro-oncologist at NYU Langone, said: "It is considered malignant, but it has the best prognosis of all of the malignant gliomas.
"It’s sort of defined as a cancerous tumor based on the ability of the tumor to regrow over time, rather than it looking very malignant under the microscope."
But the star didn’t take much time to recover following the surgery, as she admitted: "I was walking around the hospital. A few of my nurses did say to me that patients like me worry them the most because it feels like you’re not going to slow down enough."
She was quickly back to filming her 'dream' job, playing Natalia Boutella in Cupertino, when her dermatologist found the incision while administering some Botox.
After sending a picture to her surgeons, they noted that it 'didn't look good'.
"Fortunately, we got to it early, so it wasn’t a deep infection," she said.
And while some would describe the whole ordeal as somewhat of a nightmare, Phillips is thankful.
For the scan, for the early diagnosis, for the dermatologist, and of course her medical team.
"What am I? The luckiest girl in the world?," she questioned.
She expressed: "We are frequently told by doctors that there is nothing to worry about when you kind of know that there’s something to worry about. There’s nothing to be afraid of in having information. It’s only empowering."
Mia Williams