Kate Walsh recalls ‘very subtle' symptoms that led to brain tumor diagnosis: ‘Something's off'
Kate Walsh learned an important life lesson from a health scare she encountered in 2015.
While appearing on "The Kelly Clarkson Show" on Feb. 27, the actor recalled being diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2015 and explained how the experience affected her outlook on health.
"Thankfully, it turned out to be benign, so I was very, very fortunate," she said.
Walsh, 57, went on to share some of the warning signs that led to her diagnosis.
"It was like, 'Hey, I'm really tired.' And then it's like, 'Oh, the right side of my body is dipping,'" she recalled.
At first, Walsh wasn't sure what was going on, especially since people kept telling her she was fine.
"They're like, 'Oh, you're off.' I'm like 'No,'" she said.
Walsh also felt strange while walking her dog one day and recalled thinking the street must be "windy."
"It was just sort of very subtle and then very kind of, 'Oh it's ADD. I can't really focus. Oh I've been scrolling too much.' That kind of stuff," she said.
Going through this health scare taught Walsh a lesson that she's hoping to share with others.
"I know how important it is to advocate for one's own health because people were like, You're just depressed.' It was right after (my TV show) 'Bad Judge' got canceled. 'Your show got canceled. You're just depressed,'" she recalled others saying. "I'm like, 'No something's off.'"
Still, Walsh acknowledged that it's challenging to advocate for yourself in these scenarios.
"It's a hard thing when you have everybody looking at you going, 'Hmm, I think you're just this or that. You're tired,'" she said.
In 2017, Walsh appeared on TODAY to discuss her diagnosis and recovery. After feeling 'exhausted,' she decided to seek medical assistance.
'But I'd just wrapped a show, 'Bad Judge,' and I was starring in it and executive producing, so it wasn't unheard of to be totally exhausted. So I thought I just really burned myself out.'
Soon enough, Walsh started experiencing cognitive symptoms and "couldn't find my words."
After fighting for a diagnostic MRI, Walsh learned that she had a 'very sizable tumor.' Following a surgery, she discovered that it was benign.
The non-cancerous tumor was known as a meningioma, which John Hopkins Medicine defines as "the most common type of primary brain tumor."
"These tumors originate in the meninges, which are the outer three layers of tissue between the skull and the brain that cover and protect the brain just under the skull," the John Hopkins Medicine website reads. "Meningiomas grow out of the middle layer of the meninges called the arachnoid. They grow slowly and may exist for years before being detected."
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
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