Christina Applegate Talks Breast Cancer With Oprah

 

Breast cancer survivor Christina Applegate opened up to Oprah about the emotional turmoil she suffered when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and on her decisio to have both breasts removed.

She said she had an emotional, private nude photoshoot taken at home before her recent mastectomy, so she’d always have a photo to remember the breasts she was losing.

The Samantha Who? star was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year and opted to have her breasts removed in an effort to stop the spread of the disease. She staged a private ceremony on the evening of her surgery, so she’d always have a photograph.

Speaking candidly on a recent taping for Oprah Winfrey’s talk show, Applegate revealed,

“I did my first and last nudie photoshoot at home. I made sure that I have close-up photographs of them from every angle, so I can kind of remember them.”

Since the operation to remove her breasts, doctors have implanted “expanders” in the actress’ chest, which will eventually allow them to sculpt fake breasts for her.  She explained:

“They keep expanding over a few months until they take those out and put in your implants… They have this strange little thing that they insert in there and they keep filling it up with saline to expand behind the muscles.”

But she admitted to Oprah that the surgery has left her with a chest that resembles nothing like the one she had before her cancer diagnosis.  Adding:

 ”You’ve got scarring and there’s a lot of things you’re missing…and the shape is not the same and it doesn’t feel the same and it’s hard to carry your purse and there are so many limitations. It’s sad. I cry at least once a day about it because it’s hard to overlook it when you’re standing there in the mirror.”

But, despite the pain and heartache, Applegate joked there is a bright side to her surgery:

“I don’t have to wear a bra… ever again.”

Christina’s mother had breast cancer twice, so she kinda knew she was at risk for the disease telling Oprah she:

 ”sort of knew that the other shoe was gonna drop.”

Because of her mother’s history, Christina felt she had to have a double mastectomy to be safe. She wasn’t upset when she first made the choice to have both breasts removed. The tears came later:

   ” I was just gonna let them go… and then, when I met with my doctor and I told him that was my decision and he brought the surgeon in, it was like the floodgates just opened up and I lost it.”

Watch video from the show HERE.

photo: WENN