Busy Philipps is revealing that she had a brain tumor removed earlier this year.
“I’m grateful that I’m alive,” Busy told People, adding that this has been “the weirdest six months of my life.”
Busy Philipps got a full body preventative MRI earlier this year
It all started when she got a full body MRI.
“I didn’t know why I wanted to get this scan except for the fact that I just did,” she said.
However, life events and weather caused her to change her initial appointment. After the death of her beloved friend James Van Der Beek, her ex-husband Marc Silverstein urged her to keep her February 2026 appointment.
“He’s like, ‘Maybe it’s the best thing you could do for your friend this morning. Go get that scan.’”
Busy Philipps recalls finding out that she had a brain tumor after the MRI
She underwent a scan, but they found something on her brain.
“The texts to my ex-husband are comical. While I was on the phone with Dr. Donlan, I texted Marc, ‘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.’”
She revealed her kids’ reaction to the news as well. She shares Birdie, 18, and Cricket, 13, with her ex.
She recalled, “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.’ ”
She added about Cricket, “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.’ ”
Busy Philipps underwent brain surgery in March to remove the tumor
She had surgery on March 2 to remove the tumor. The 2.6 centimeter-long mass was biopsied, and found to be a rare tumor called an oligodendroglioma.
“I wasn’t in pain at all,” she said of her recovery.
Busy Philipps had an oligodendroglioma
According to the Cleveland Clinic, “Oligodendroglioma is a central nervous system tumor, meaning it affects your brain (or rarely, your spinal cord). It starts in a type of glial cells, which are your nervous system’s support cells. Experts consider oligodendroglioma a very treatable tumor, even when cancerous, and the odds of survival are usually good.”
Busy Philipps then developed an infection a month later
However, she did develop an infection in her incision. She went to get Botox in April and her doctor was concerned.
Busy recalled ,“She’s like, ‘That doesn’t look right. I’m not going to touch it….Can I take a picture of it and will you send it to your surgeons right now?’…And I did and they immediately were like, ‘That doesn’t look good.’”
She was diagnosed with a staphylococcus infection and needed a debridement surgery to help.
About catching both the tumor and the infection on the early side, Busy noted, “What am I? The luckiest girl in the world?”
Her BFF Michelle Williams made a great point
Her bestie Michelle Williams also made a point to her: “She said, ‘Busy, you have been saying for the past two years, My brain feels broken.’ And she was right. I have. I’ve been saying this for the last few years. . . . I wasn’t consciously aware that anything was really wrong, but there was something that was misfiring. Like, I could not get a handle on it.” And now, post-surgery? “My brain does not feel broken anymore.”
She noted, “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 post Busy Philipps Had a Rare Brain Tumor, Underwent Surgery This Year to Remove the Oligodendroglioma appeared first on Just Jared - Celebrity News and Gossip | Entertainment.