Off The Record
Kathy Bates Health: Actress ‘Went Berserk’ After Diagnosis Of ‘Incurable’ Condition
In the United States, Kathy Bates is a household name. The actress, who is also a stage and cinema star, made her big screen debut in the Oscar-nominated horror picture Misery. The star’s private medical history isn’t as rosy as it seems.
The actress is most known for her parts in the ninth season of Two and a Half Men and the NBC sitcom Harry’s Law, for which she won two Golden Globes and two Primetime Emmys. However, in 2003, Bates learned she had ovarian cancer.
Hysterectomy (the removal of the womb) and nine courses of chemotherapy were the results of her fight against the disease. Breast cancer recurred in Bates two years after she was declared cancer-free.
The actress had a double mastectomy after finding that her mother and aunt also suffered from breast cancer.
“When the doctor told me I had a tumor in my left breast, I exclaimed, ‘Make mine a double,’” I explained. Take them both out. “I wasn’t going to take any chances,” she explained in a previous interview with Practical Pain Management.
“My family is awash in breast cancer. My aunt, mother, and niece all died due to it.”
The actress underwent risky surgery to lessen the likelihood of a recurrence of cancer despite the fact that she tested negative for the BRCA breast cancer gene. How gracefully she bore her illness.
The American Horror Story star lost her uterus and both breasts to cancer, but her troubles were far from over because she also developed lymphedema.
Lymphedema, as defined by SurvivorNet, is a condition characterized by swelling of the arm and hand caused by an abnormal accumulation of lymph fluid, a clear fluid that travels through the lymphatic system and aids in the body’s defense against illness and infection.
“Then I had lymphedema,” Bates explained on The Kelly Clarkson Show in 2019.
“I’m not sure you’ve heard, but they remove lymph nodes to treat cancer. When your lymph system is compromised, fluid typically accumulates in the affected leg.”
Bates revealed her frustration at being diagnosed with lymphedema so soon after breast surgery.
“As soon as I woke up, I felt a peculiar sensation, almost like a tingling, in my left arm,” she told SurvivorNet.
“I went nuts. I raced out of the exam room and out the door. What precisely am I doing? I wondered as I hugged a pillow to my chest while still wearing my drains. I’m standing outside in the middle of July. It’s hot, I’m still recuperating, and I don’t want to injure anyone.
“I was outraged beyond belief. I believe it resulted from having battled cancer twice and knowing that this affliction would always be with me.”
“I felt bitter and depressed. I assumed that my professional career was over and that everything was finished.”
The National Health Service recommends beginning treatment for lymphoedema as soon as possible to halt its progression.
More Americans are affected by this than by AIDS, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, muscular dystrophy, and ALS combined, it is estimated at 10 million.
They don’t tell us to “just go eat a salad” when we complain to our doctors about our swollen legs because we’re overweight, she said, and no one seems to be aware of the problem.
In addition to getting worse, this disease also progresses and cannot be cured. You can get admitted to the hospital since there are approximately 50,000 adults who were born with congenital infections.
The National Health Service (NHS) continues to stress that lymphoedema’s major symptoms are treatable by using measures that limit fluid accumulation.
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