Grey’s Anatomy star Kate Walsh explains the ’subtle’ warning signs she noticed before brain tumor diagnosis
Grey’s Anatomy star Kate Walsh has opened up about the symptoms of her brain tumor she noticed before being diagnosed.
Best known for playing Addison Montgomery on the hit hospital drama, Walsh has been in the public eye for decades.
Having featured in series such as The Umbrella Academy, Emily in Paris, 13 Reasons Why, and Bad Judge, many have seen Walsh throughout the years playing everything from deranged, suffering with the loss of a child, a fashionista, and more.
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But what they may not have known was that Walsh was suffering with a non-cancerous brain tumor during many of those shows.
The 57-year-old opened up about her health during an appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, where she explained her 2015 diagnosis.
“Thankfully, it turned out to be benign, so I was very, very fortunate,” Walsh said.
However, she went on to say that there were ‘very subtle’ warning signs ahead of her tumor diagnosis.
The California native shared that others around her believed that she was simply ‘depressed’ due to her work.
The actor explained: “I know how important it is to advocate for one’s own health because people were like, ‘You’re just depressed.’ It was right after [my TV show] Bad Judge got canceled.'”
She said that people would say to her: “Your show got canceled. You’re just depressed.”
But she would respond back: “I’m like, ‘No, something’s off.'”
At first, she said there was fatigue, before her coordination became an issue.
“It was like, ‘Hey, I’m really tired,'” Walsh shared. “And then it’s like, ‘Oh, the right side of my body is dipping.’”
With people around her being dismissive, she too began to make excuses for her new struggles.
Walsh recalled: “They’re like, ‘Oh, you’re off.’ I’m like, ‘No,' and then, walking the dog, I’m like, ‘It must be a little bit of a windy street.’
Then she believed she had Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) as she ‘can’t really focus’ and had been ‘scrolling too much’ before seeking medical help.
It was then that the actress found that she had a large brain tumor.
When speaking with Kelly Clarkson, Walsh stated that her father died due to complications from lung cancer, and her mother previously had breast cancer, making cancer run in her immediate family.
Speaking to Cosmopolitan in September 2017, she explained that she even believed her symptoms were due to menopause, noting ‘there are a lot of the same markers’ before stating that she had to advocate for her own health when others were unphased by her symptoms.
“I really pushed to see a neurologist. I just had an instinct,” Walsh recalled. “I had to really advocate because they don’t hand out MRIs so easily. But I got an MRI and, thank God I did, because it turned out I had a very sizable brain tumor in my left frontal lobe.”
For her, that diagnosis changed everything- particularly how she views health.
“I just left my body,” she said. “My assistant had driven me there, and I had to go get him so that he could take notes because I was gone. It was never anything I would have imagined.”
Just three days after being told the news, the actress had surgery to remove the growth, which was a benign meningioma.
Thankfully, she did not have a cancerous tumor, but the impact of getting a diangosis and surgery and fear must have been overwhelming.
Britt Jones