Dawson’s Creek alum Busy Philipps is opening up about her recovery after being diagnosed with a brain tumor.
“I’m grateful that I’m alive,” Philipps, 47, told People in an interview published Wednesday, August 26, revealing that a Prenuvo full-body scan in February confirmed the presence of a grade 2 oligodendroglioma, a rare slow-growing tumor.
Philipps, who didn’t have any obvious symptoms in advance, said that she thought about canceling her scan since it was scheduled one day after her former Dawson’s Creek costar James Van Der Beek died from stage III colorectal cancer.
“‘Should I cancel it?’” Philipps recalled asking her ex-husband, Marc Silverstein, who responded, “Maybe it’s the best thing you could do for your friend this morning. Go get that scan.”
After the Prenuvo scan confirmed the presence of a tumor, Philipps was admittedly “hyperventilating” while still “trying to breathe.”
Immediately, the actress was focused on consoling her two daughters. (Philipps and Silverstein, 55, are the parents of Birdie, 17, and Cricket, 13.)
“[Birdie] was kind of beside herself and really, really scared and overwhelmed with emotion,” the Girls5Eva alum recalled of her eldest child. “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.’”
As for Cricket, Philipps noted that her youngest daughter was much calmer about her diagnosis.
“Her reaction when I told her was like, ‘OK. You’re going to be fine?’ And I was like, ‘I’m totally going to be fine,’” Philipps said. “And she’s like, ‘OK.’”
Philipps ultimately underwent a procedure in March, with doctors removing a 2.6-centimeter mass from her brain.
“It is considered malignant, but it has the best prognosis of all of the malignant gliomas,” Philipps’ neuro-oncologist, Dr. Alexandra Miller, told People. “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.”
Philipps’ procedure was successful, and she told the outlet that she “wasn’t in pain at all.” However, she faced a setback in April when she contracted staphylococcus on her incision and needed a follow-up surgery to debride and clear the wound.
While the actress’ surgery was successful, she will need to get regular scans to monitor a potential recurrence.
“What am I? The luckiest girl in the world?” she quipped.
