Busy Philipps is “grateful” to be alive after undergoing a pair of intense surgical procedures to address a rare malignant brain tumor uncovered by her doctors.
The 47-year-old actress told People she learned she had a grade 2 oligodendroglioma in February, following a Prenuvo full-body scan. She initially considered canceling her appointment given that she did not have any sort of symptoms, she said. It was also scheduled the day after her “Dawson’s Creek” co-star, James Van Der Beek, died from stage III colorectal cancer.
“‘Should I cancel it?’” Philipps recalled asking her ex-husband, Marc Silverstein, who told her: “Maybe it’s the best thing you could do for your friend this morning. Go get that scan.”
Philipps at the time found herself turning to one of her true loves — comedy — to get through the ordeal. She tried to make light of the situation, sending humorous messages to Silverstein when doctors uncovered a lesion in her frontal lobe.
“[I wrote], ‘OMG I have a brain tumor.’ And he wrote back, ‘Busy, what? What are you saying? What are you talking about?’ I was like, ‘It looks fine. It’s probably benign. I don’t know.’”
After another MRI, doctors confirmed her worst fears.
“This is a real tumor, and it’s inside your brain,” she recalled her neurologist telling her. “And Busy, it’s got to come out.”
She added: “I was hyperventilating and trying to breathe.”
Philipps ultimately underwent a five-hour procedure in March, during which doctors removed a 2.6-centimeter mass from her brain. One month later, the actress’ dermatologist expressed concern about Philipps incision during a Botox session. She later learned she had contracted staphylococcus and needed a second surgery to clear the infection, which “really threw” her.
“I’m grateful that I’m alive,” Philipps said, declaring her recent health battles “the weirdest six months of my life.”