Busy Philipps revealed she had a malignant brain tumor removed weeks before she was set to start filming her new CBS show “Cupertino.”
“I’m grateful that I’m alive,” Philipps told People.
What started as an unnecessary, but precautionary full-body MRI that checks for more than 500 conditions ended up saving Philipps’ life. The “Freaks and Geeks” actress had no real reason to get the scan besides curiosity. She was deemed young and healthy by her doctor with no underlying symptoms.
“I didn’t know why I wanted to get this scan except for the fact that I just did,” said Philipps, who found out about the scan via Instagram.
Despite her primary care physician reaffirming her health, she decided to get the scan anyway, which revealed a lesion on her brain. Philipps had just finished meeting with Robert and Michelle King, the creators of “Cupertino,” about the series and was getting ready to head to a fashion show when she found out about the mass and was told she needed a follow-up MRI immediately. She soon sought treatment from the doctor that treats her daughter Birdie for epilepsy.
“‘This is a real tumor, and it’s inside your brain. And Busy, it’s got to come out,’” Philipps recalled him saying on the phone. “I was hyperventilating and trying to breathe.”
With the news of the tumor also came the news that she had been cast in “Cupertino,” which was set to start shooting in the spring. Fearful she might lose her role, she kept her health issues under wraps.
The tumor was an oligodendroglioma, a malignant tumor defined by two genetic alterations. If she had waited until she was having seizures, her doctor noted, it would have been much larger and much more difficult to take out.
But Philipps’ preemptive scan saved her life, and the surgery went smoothly. Afterward, Philipps was set to step into her “Cupertino” shoes playing Natalia Boutella, the wealthy and flamboyant financial backer of a Silicon Valley law firm.
“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,” she said. “There’s nothing to be afraid of in having information. It’s only empowering.”