Christina Applegate (36) says she had a double mastectomy three weeks ago, and she’ll undergo reconstructive surgery over the next eight months. That’s the bad news. The good news is, she’s cancer free. Applegate said:
"I’m going to have cute boobs ’til I’m 90, so there’s that. I’ll have the best boobs in the nursing home. I’ll be the envy of all the ladies around the bridge table."
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. Applegate’s cancer was detected early through a doctor-ordered MRI.
"I just wanted to kind of be rid of it, so this was the choice I made and it was a tough one."
"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 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’ve laughed so much in the last three weeks. 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, who started getting mammograms six years ago after she turned 30, said the cancer was found through the second of two MRI tests as a follow-up from a biopsy she had last year. After being diagnosed only one month ago she says:
"I’m clear. Absolutely 100 percent clear and clean. They got everything out, so I’m definitely not going to die from breast cancer."
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. 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.
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