Busy Philipps has shared intimate photographs from her recovery after secretly undergoing two brain surgeries to remove a rare tumour earlier this year. The 47-year-old actress shocked fans when she revealed she had been diagnosed with a grade 2 oligodendroglioma after undergoing a preventative full-body MRI despite experiencing no symptoms.
Recovery images shared online
Now, after keeping the extent of her treatment private for months, the Dawson's Creek star has shared photographs documenting everything from her time in intensive care to the aftermath of surgery. One image shows Busy recovering in hospital with her head heavily bandaged, while another reveals the surgical wound on her scalp following one of the procedures. She also posted a video filmed in March on the night before her surgery, in which an emotional Busy reflected on how fortunate she felt to have access to high-quality medical care.
However, the actress was keen to reassure followers that the frightening images were from earlier this year – and that she has since recovered. 'Everyone (mostly) has been so overwhelmingly kind in the past 24 hours so thank you so much for all your well wishes and love and prayers and support,' she wrote on Instagram. 'But just to reiterate, because the internet loves a clickbait, I AM ALREADY RECOVERED! You all have literally watched me recover since March 2, you just didn't know it! I AM TOTALLY FINE! YAY MEDICINE!'
Return to normal life
Other photographs reveal how Busy quietly returned to normal life while recovering, including images of her icing a visibly swollen forehead on the set of her TV series Cupertino. In another lighter moment from the difficult few months, Queer Eye star Jonathan Van Ness can be seen colouring her hair.
Busy thanked the medical teams who cared for her, as well as the people around her who helped her through six months of recovery while the public remained unaware of what she was going through. 'Thank you to all of my doctors and nurses. Thank you to my kids and my friends and family and my new tv family at @cupertinocbs for helping to get me through these last 6 months as I recovered and tried to get back to feeling like myself which I really finally do!' she wrote.
Diagnosis and surgery
The Freaks and Geeks star first revealed her diagnosis in an interview with People, explaining that the tumour was discovered almost entirely by chance. Busy underwent a Prenuvo scan – a preventative full-body MRI – in February despite having no symptoms that suggested anything was wrong. 'I didn't know why I wanted to get this scan except for the fact that I just did,' she recalled.
The results identified a lesion on her brain, prompting her doctor to tell her to undergo a follow-up MRI as quickly as possible. That second scan confirmed the frightening reality of what doctors had discovered. Busy recalled being told over the phone: 'This is a real tumor, and it's inside your brain. And Busy, it's got to come out.' 'I was hyperventilating and trying to breathe,' she said of receiving the news.
The tumour was subsequently identified as a grade 2 oligodendroglioma, a rare type of brain tumour which develops from cells called oligodendrocytes and typically grows relatively slowly. Busy ultimately underwent two operations as part of her treatment, keeping the diagnosis and surgeries private while she recovered.
Personal context and current status
The discovery also came during an already devastating period in the actress's life. Around the same time, her longtime friend and former Dawson's Creek co-star James Van Der Beek died aged 48 following his battle with colorectal cancer. The pair had known each other for decades after starring together on the hit teen drama, in which Busy played Audrey Liddell alongside Van Der Beek's Dawson Leery.
While fans watching Busy over the subsequent months had no idea she was recovering from major brain surgery, she has now said she finally feels like herself again. And although the newly released ICU photographs reveal just how serious her ordeal was, Busy clearly doesn't want anyone mistaking them for an update on her current condition. As she rather emphatically put it: she is 'TOTALLY FINE'.
