Busy Philipps says a brain tumor found on a February MRI led to surgery in March. The 47-year-old actor said the result came after she pushed for screening even after a doctor told her she did not need one.
February MRI and 2.6cm mass
Philipps told People that she is grateful she is alive and described the past six months as "the weirdest six months of my life." She said the MRI in February found a grade 2 oligodendroglioma, a rare low-grade tumor, and that March surgery removed a 2.6cm mass from her brain.
She also said, "I didn’t know why I wanted to get this scan except for the fact that I just did." That decision came after she had spent two years telling friends her "brain feels broken," while assuming some of the changes were tied to perimenopause.
Marc Silverstein and Orrin Devinsky
Philipps said she debated cancelling the scan with Marc Silverstein before he pushed her toward it: "Maybe it’s the best thing you could do for your friend this morning. Go get that scan." When neurologist Orrin Devinsky told her the result, she said she was "hyperventilating and trying to breathe."
She said, "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." The scan landed days after James Van Der Beek died in February at 48 after being diagnosed with bowel cancer, and just before an audition for Cupertino.
Recovery after March surgery
Two days after the five-hour surgery, Philipps said she was back home and "wasn’t in pain at all," even with more than 40 surgical staples in her forehead. Michelle Williams arranged food for her, and Philipps later started filming Cupertino, where she plays Natalia Boutella.
Not long into filming, she learned she had developed a staphylococcus infection in her incision and needed debridement surgery. That turns a clean recovery into a slower one, and it leaves the hard part where medicine often does its least glamorous work: fixing the fix.
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