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I'm glad she was able to get rid of the cancer.
i'm glad she has a good spirit about it. i never really think she was all that until recently.
Christina Applegate has double mastectomy
NEW YORK (AP) -- Christina Applegate is taking the long view of her battle with breast cancer -- the really long view.
Speaking on ABC News' "Good Morning America" in her first interview since announcing her diagnosis earlier this month, the "Samantha Who?" star said she had a double mastectomy three weeks ago. She'll undergo reconstructive surgery over the next eight months.
"I'm going to have cute boobs 'til I'm 90, so there's that," she joked in the interview, which aired Tuesday. "I'll have the best boobs in the nursing home. I'll be the envy of all the ladies around the bridge table."
The 36-year-old actress elected to remove both breasts even though the disease was contained in one breast. She said she is now cancer-free.
Applegate called the operation a logical decision. Her mother battled breast cancer, and she tested positive for the BRCA1 gene mutation linked to breast and ovarian cancer.
"I just wanted to kind of be rid of it," she said. "So this was the choice I made and it was a tough one."
The experience has been an emotional roller coaster, 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," she said. "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."
The Emmy-nominated "Samantha Who?" star has kept her sense of humor intact.
"I've laughed so much in the last three weeks," she said. "I love living, and I really love my life, and I knew that from this moment on it was only going to be good that was going to be coming. Yeah, I'll face challenges, but you can't get any darker than where I've been. So knowing that in my soul gave me the strength to just say, 'I have to get out there and make this a positive.' "
Applegate's cancer was detected early through a doctor-ordered MRI. She said she's starting a program to help women at high risk for breast cancer to meet the costs of an MRI, which is not always covered by insurance.
The news of breast cancer initially shook her up, she said.
"I was so mad," she told "GMA." "I was just shaking and -- and then also immediately, I had to go into ... 'take-care-of-business-mode,' which was ... I asked them, 'What do I do now? What -- what is it that I do? I get a doctor, I get a surgeon, I get an oncologist? What do I do?' "
The actress said she quickly made appointments, and also changed her diet to one consisting of fish, grains, beans and vegetables, avoiding processed foods.
Applegate is scheduled to appear on a one-hour TV special, "Stand Up to Cancer," to be aired on ABC, CBS and NBC on September 5 to raise funds for cancer research.
The special will also include a new song, "Just Stand Up," which features Mariah Carey, Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Rihanna, Fergie, Sheryl Crow, Miley Cyrus, Melissa Etheridge, Ashanti, Natasha Bedingfield, Keyshia Cole, Ciara, Leona Lewis, LeAnn Rimes and Carrie Underwood. The song will debut on radio and iTunes September 2. All sales of the star-studded single will benefit cancer research.
The charity tune was conceived by Antonio "L.A." Reid, who produced it with longtime creative colleague Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds.
Applegate has been nominated for an Emmy and a Golden Globe for the ABC show "Samantha Who?" in which she plays a woman who wakes from a coma with no memory of who she is.
I'm glad she was able to get rid of the cancer.
Wow, Christina is very brave I think.
I can't imagine having that kind of surgery much less giving an interview about it.
All the best to her.
My sister-in-law had the same surgery last year.
I've had friends go through this. Docs seem to be encouraging it more and more to those folks prone to breast cancer. The surgery is painful but I suppose that's still better than the alternative.
Plus, a good plastic surgeon can replace those old, floppy, cancer cookers with some nice, perky, northern pointing, happy boobs, so it's not all bad...except for having to go through life with fake areolas.
tatoo artists are starting to specialize in areola tatooing. they look pretty damn real.
Only if they have BRCA mutations. Otherwise, ductal carcinoma doesnt have any more chance in the opposite breast than the original CA. Lobular carcinoma does. So they might chop off both boobies with Lobular CA
I wish her the best.
Good to hear she's in the clear, and it sounds like dealing with it publically might be helping other women dealing with this.
On a lighter note, I thought her breasts were one of the highlights of Anchorman; especially in Ron's perfect domestic life fantasy scene.
Scary. A friend of mine from nursing school had such a strong family history of breast CA , she elected to have double mastectomies even though at age 32 (I think) she was cancer negative.
She has money. She can buy new ones.
That's my bo.., I mean troll
Seriously, best wishes Christine!
You are obviously coming to this from the MALE point of view. As a woman I know that if I had breast cancer (of any type) I would elect to have them both removed and reconstructed. In fact that is exactly what I told my surgeon when I was 32 and had a lumpectomy. I said if it's malignant then take both breasts. Luckily for me it wasn't so I just lost a chunk which later filled back in. There is an emotional component tied to the fact that if one breast has cancer you will always worry about the other one no matter what statistics say.
This is true.
I can't imagine what a woman who has breast cancer feels like. But every woman is different.
Some want them both off against medical advice, for peace of mind, and some will do anything to save a breast even if every surgeon recommends it should come off.
Neither is right or wrong.
But the comment was that "doctors are encouraging" high risk women to have bilateral mastectomies. That is debatable. If women are going to worry for the rest of their lives about their breasts, then it might be better to have them both off. But that is up to the patient. We just give them the odds, and do what they ask of us.
Glad to hear she is cancer free. She is a very brave woman, as are all folks who deal with cancer, IMO.
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