Busy Philipps, 47, diagnosed with rare brain tumor and reveals she quietly underwent two life-saving surgeries

BUSY Philipps has revealed she underwent multiple surgeries following a rare brain tumor diagnosis. The actress opened up about her health issues in a new interview, where she said she needed two operations to remove a brain tumor. Busy Phillips revealed she underwent two surgeries to remove a rare brain tumor Credit: Variety via Getty Images The actress said she discovered in February that she had grade 2 oligodendroglioma after getting a Prenuvo scan Credit: Getty “I’m grateful that I’m alive,” the Dawson’s Creek alum told People, and called the time “the weirdest six months of my life.” Busy said she discovered in February that she had grade 2 oligodendroglioma, a rare slow-growing tumor, after getting a Prenuvo scan. Sign up for the Showbiz newsletter Thank you! “I didn’t know why I wanted to get this scan except for the fact that I just did,” the 47-year-old said about the full-body MRI, despite not having any present symptoms at the time. She followed her instincts and initially scheduled the scan in January, but a blizzard that rocked New York City, where she lives, forced her to postpone it several weeks. Around the same time, Busy lost her longtime friend and Dawson’s Creek co-star, James Van Der Beek, to colon cancer at 48. The TV star also had other work and personal obligations to take care of, which made her consider canceling the appointment altogether. However, after discussing it with her ex-husband and close friend, Marc Silverstein, she decided to go ahead with the scan. “He’s like, ‘Maybe it’s the best thing you could do for your friend this morning. Go get that scan,'” Busy said of Marc’s words, mentioning James. Most read in Entertainment It’s a good thing, too, as the results concerned her doctor, who informed her that she had a lesion on her brain. He instructed her to get a follow-up MRI as early as possible to get a better look at the lesion, and she complied. “‘This is a real tumor, and it’s inside your brain. And Busy, it’s got to come out,'” Busy remembers her doctor saying on the phone. “I was hyperventilating and trying to breathe.” Busy said that her ex-husband and close friend, Marc Silverstein, helped her decide to go ahead with the procedure after she had some hesitation Credit: Getty Busy also said that her then-17-year-old daughter, Birdie, was ‘terrified’ to learn about her mother’s diagnosis Credit: Instagram/busyphilipps Busy also remembered her child Birdie‘s terrified reaction, saying the teenager “was kind of beside herself and really, really scared and overwhelmed with emotion.” “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.'” Meanwhile, Busy’s younger daughter, Cricket, had a much calmer response. “Her reaction when I told her was like, ‘Okay. You’re going to be fine?’ And I was like, ‘I’m totally going to be fine.’ And she’s like, ‘Okay,'” the Freaks and Geeks alum recalled. Busy’s first procedure took place on March 2, during which the 2.6-centimeter mass in her brain was removed and biopsied during a five-hour surgery. “It is considered malignant, but it has the best prognosis of all of the malignant gliomas,” Busy’s surgeon reportedly said. “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.” Luckily, Busy’s recovery was smooth sailing, and despite having some swelling in her forehead and more than 40 surgical staples, she said, “I wasn’t in pain at all.” However, she suffered another health scare weeks later when her dermatologist noticed the incision site didn’t look right during a Botox appointment. She urged her to get it checked out, later learning that she had contracted staphylococcus in her incision and needed debridement surgery to clear the infection. Busy also needed one of the small titanium tacks put in her skull during the previous surgery, which held the bone in place, to be removed. “Fortunately, we got to it early, so it wasn’t a deep infection,” Busy’s surgeon said. The podcast host, however, had trouble grappling with needing to go under the knife for a second time. “The second surgery really threw me. I just felt like I was back to square one, and I was really, really upset,” Busy admitted. Despite the setback, Busy is thankful that the scan caught the tumor early and that everything turned out okay. “What am I? The luckiest girl in the world?” she asked. She now hopes the ordeal will warn others to stay on top of their health, especially women. “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,” Busy said. “There’s nothing to be afraid of in having information. It’s only empowering.” Comment now