Actress Busy Philipps has revealed that she underwent surgery earlier this year to remove a rare tumor after a preventative full-body scan uncovered a mass in her brain.
"This is a crazy story," she said. "It really is sort of like the best case scenario of the worst case scenario."
The actress, who is best known for her roles in the television shows "Dawson's Creek" and "Cougar Town," was diagnosed with grade 2 oligodendroglioma in February.
Philipps told People that she didn't display any of the classic symptoms and had only opted to undergo a Prenuvo scan—a whole-body MRI that evaluates the body's major organs—as a precaution.
Her scan was scheduled for Feb. 12, just one day after her friend and "Dawson's Creek" co-star James Van Der Beek died at the age of 48 following a battle with stage 3 colorectal cancer.
Philipps said she almost canceled the test due to an upcoming audition. However, her ex-husband—screenwriter Marc Silverstein, with whom she shares two daughters, Birdie, 18, and Cricket, 13—encouraged her to go.
"He's like, 'Maybe it's the best thing you could do for your friend this morning. Go get that scan,'" she recalled.
The following afternoon, Philipps learned that the scan had found a lesion on the right frontal lobe of her brain.
After getting a second MRI to identify the mass, Philipps underwent surgery to remove the tumor in early March. She faced complications the following month after she developed a staph infection at the surgical site and required an additional procedure to treat it.
"This time in my life has been so weird—weird and wonderful kind of in a way—really enlightening and kind of magical," she told the publication. "The confluence of circumstances and the timing of everything lining up the way that it did in order for everything else to line up the way that it did. I'm incredibly grateful."