Yesterday, the headlines read something like “Christina Applegate says she is 100% clear of cancer.” I thought to myself “Wow that is a bit of a bold statement.” I mean, how can she be so sure?
Today, the news broke that the “Samantha Who?” star had undergone a double mastectomy. For those that may not know, this means she had both her breasts surgically removed. The 36 year old actress had been diagnosed with breast cancer in one breast earlier this month, so why the surgery to remove both breasts, which some may see as radical?
In her first interview since the diagnosis, she said on “Good Morning America” that her mother had battled breast cancer and she herself had tested positive for the BRCA1 gene. This gene mutation means an increased chance of breast or ovarian cancer in many patients.
Christina said having the double mastectomy was a tough choice, but “I just wanted to kind of be rid of it.” She will undergo reconstructive breast surgery for the next eight months. She is able to joke about the ordeal, saying during the interview that she is going to have “cute boobs ‘til I’m 90” and “I’ll have the best boobs in the nursing home.”
Still, it has been a rough ordeal. She said “Sometimes, you know, I cry and sometimes I scream and I get really angry and I get really like, you know, into wallowing in self-pity sometimes. And I think that’s — it’s all part of healing, and anyone who’s going through it out there, it’s OK to cry. It’s OK to fall on the ground and just scream if you want to.”
I applaud Christina for sharing this very personal ordeal with the world. She made a decision that many women have to face and she did it with grace and humor. Christina plans to start a program that will cover the cost of MRIs (which detected her cancer) for women at high risk for breast cancer whose insurance companies won’t cover the charges. She will also appear on the televised fund raising special “Stand Up to Cancer” which will appear on ABC, NBC, and CBS on September 5.