Busy Philipps shared the results of her MRI scan with fans, six months after undergoing surgery to remove a brain tumor.
The actress, 47, was diagnosed with grade 2 oligodendroglioma in February after undergoing a full-body MRI scan the day after the death of her co-star James Van Der Beek at the age of 48 from colon cancer.
And on Tuesday, she posted a six-month video update to her Instagram, captioning it: “6 months MRI done! NO signs of tumor progression!’
However, she added that the scan was “a clear sign of a sinus infection!!” before joking, “Well…I guess I’ll take it!”
In the clip, Philipps said her infection “makes sense because my eye is red.” My left eye, from last week.’
“And if you’re someone who’s been following me for a long time, you know those sinuses, honey. They’ve been after me since day one. So I’m going to the sinus doctor tomorrow morning. Look what we have to do,” she said.
Busy Philipps, 47, shared her MRI scan results six months after surgery for a grade 2 oligodendroglioma brain tumor
On Tuesday, she posted a video update to her Instagram and wrote in her caption, “6 months of MRI done! NO signs of tumor progression!’
Philipps added that she had sinus surgery in 2018, before stating that she may need to do an anti-inflammatory cleanse.
She then took off her glasses to give fans a closer look at her irritated left eye, which she said felt “sore.”
The star added that she initially thought it was eczema. “But now that the MRI says I have a sinus infection, I don’t know what’s going on,” she added.
“But no tumor, so I guess I could take a sinus infection any day instead of a brain tumor.”
Last month, Philipps shared a series of photos of her recovery.
After first going public with her diagnosis a week earlier, Philipps took to Instagram to assure fans that she is “doing absolutely fine.”
Sharing a photo of her recovery in intensive care after surgery, she wrote: “Everyone (mostly) has been so overwhelmingly kind over the last 24 hours so thank you so much for all your well wishes and love, prayers and support.”
‘But to reiterate: because the internet loves clickbait, I HAVE ALREADY RECOVERED! You all have literally seen me recover since March 2nd, you just didn’t know it! I’m doing absolutely fine! YESSS MEDICINE!’
However, she added that the scan was “a clear sign of a sinus infection!!” before joking, “Well…I guess I’ll take it!” Philipps said her infection ‘makes sense because my eye is red’
The actress was diagnosed with grade 2 oligodendroglioma in February after undergoing a full-body MRI scan the day after her co-star James Van Der Beek’s death at the age of 48 from colon cancer.
Last month, Philipps shared a series of photos of her recovery
She also shared a photo of her hair covered in blood after surgery, as well as her swollen forehead after she suffered an infection post-surgery.
She managed to work despite her health problems and revealed that she regularly froze her forehead during filming to keep the swelling down
Philipps also shared a photo of her hair covered in blood after surgery, as well as her swollen forehead after she suffered an infection post-surgery.
She managed to work despite her health problems and revealed that she regularly froze her forehead during filming to keep the swelling down.
The last photo showed how far she has come. Philipps enjoyed the sunset with her dog as she wrote, “Me, enjoying the sunset with Gina yesterday.” not a rare malignant brain tumor in sight!!!’
“Thank you to my kids and my friends and family and my new TV family at @cupertinobs for helping me get through the last six months as I healed and tried to feel like myself again, which I’m finally really doing!”
Revealing that she underwent surgery in early March, just weeks before she started filming her new show Cupertino, Philipps admitted: “I’m grateful to be alive,” adding that it’s been “the weirdest six months of my life.”
The star said she had no symptoms of grade 2 oligodendroglioma, a rare, slow-growing tumor found in only 1,100 to 1,300 people a year in the US.
The lesion was only discovered after she was inspired to undergo the MRI scan, which checks for more than 500 conditions, after reading about it on Instagram.
Speak with People magazine Regarding her health concerns, Philipps explained that her scan was initially scheduled for January, but a snowstorm forced her to move the appointment to February 12, the day after her boyfriend Van Der Beek died.
In conversation with her ex-husband and good friend Marc Silverstein, she considered canceling the scan due to her sadness about Van Der Beek and a busy work period.
But Silverstein told her that Van Der Beek would want her to learn more about her health. ‘He said, ‘Maybe this is the best thing you can do for your friend this morning. Go get that scan.’
She underwent the five-hour procedure in March along with ex-husband and close friend Marc Silverstein, the father of her daughters Birdie, 17, and Cricket, 13.
The scan showed a lesion in her brain, but fortunately glioblastoma, an aggressive cancerous tumor with no cure, was quickly ruled out.
Her doctor instructed her to have a follow-up MRI as soon as possible to get a better look at the lesion. She remembered the phone call when her doctor told her, “This is a real tumor, and it’s in your brain. And Pressure, it has to come out,” and she said, “I was hyperventilating and trying to breathe.”
The actress underwent a five-hour procedure to remove the 2.6cm tumor a month later, with Silverstein, father to her daughters Birdie, 17, and Cricket, 13, supporting her in hospital.
Philipps recalled telling her daughters about the diagnosis and saying her eldest was “a little beside herself and very scared and overwhelmed with emotions.”
“I kept telling 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 you’re in. I promise you that.’
Meanwhile, Cricket’s reaction when I told her was, “Okay. You’re going to be okay?’ And I thought, ‘I’m going to be just fine.'”
A biopsy of the tumor was performed and it was discovered to be malignant, with her doctor advising ‘that it has the best prognosis of all malignant gliomas’.
Philipps will not need chemotherapy or radiotherapy, but will have regular scans to check for a possible recurrence, with her doctor noting that ‘she has a really good chance of this not happening again’.
Philipps explained how her scan was initially scheduled for January, but a snowstorm forced her to move the appointment to February 12, the day after her boyfriend Van Der Beek died.
In April, Philipps was back in the hospital after contracting staph in her incision and undergoing another surgery to cure the infection.
The infection was discovered when Philipps’ dermatologist noticed that the incision site did not look good during a Botox appointment.
‘The second operation really threw me off. I felt like I was back at square one, and I was really, really upset,” admitted Philipps, who had just started filming her new show at the time.
She has now realized that some of the “extreme emotional reactions” she had experienced in recent years were due to the tumor pressing on her frontal lobe, and not from perimenopause as she had always assumed.
Although her doctors can’t be sure if these were symptoms, Philipps’ best friend and Dawson’s co-star Michelle Williams, who helped her after her surgery, pointed out to her: “Pressure, you’ve been saying for two years, my brain feels broken.” And she was right. I have. I’ve been saying this for a few years…I wasn’t aware that anything was really wrong, but there was something that wasn’t right.’
‘For example, I couldn’t get a grip on it. My brain doesn’t feel broken anymore.’
On Instagram, Philipps explained that she had been keeping her loved ones in the loop for the past six months through Instagram’s Close Friends feature.
She said she wanted to keep the news within her circle to protect her daughters from “the added craziness of their mother talking about it publicly.”
Fans can next watch the star in CBS’ legal drama series Cupertino, premiering October 8; Philipps pictured in February
She added that she also had to start filming her show Cupertino “just four and a half weeks” after her first surgery “and I just had to lock in and just get through it.”
Philipps also told her followers how grateful she was that she decided to have the MRI scan, admitting: “To be honest I didn’t even have a job when I did it and I was a bit like ‘this is a stupid amount of money I’m spending’ but I did it anyway.”
Although she has only just publicly revealed her diagnosis, Philipps hinted at her health struggles in a March 19 Instagram post, writing that it had been “literally the weirdest 2.5 weeks of my life.”
‘I can’t wait to write book 2…. this is what i know. I know this: I love my daughters. i love my friends. i love my dog and cats. I love my ex-husband (still legal husband lol) if I hate war and the cold and I’m ready for that to be over, but seriously, how lucky are we that we get to be anything at all?’
‘Just existing is a gift. happy new moon. plant the seeds. let’s move on. hand on my heart. hand on my stupid heart.’
Fans can next watch the star in CBS’ legal drama series Cupertino, premiering on October 8.
