Christina Applegate Has Double Mastectomy

Christina Applegate underwent a double mastectomy three weeks ago to deal with the breast cancer she announced earlier this month. What made Applegate choose such a radical procedure when her cancer was in only one breast?We reported on Christina Applegate’s breast cancer earlier this month. Today we learned that three weeks ago she had a double mastectomy, and now she faces months of reconstructive surgery. Applegate talked with ABC News’ Robin Roberts on “Good Morning America” this morning and described why she opted for such an extreme plan of action when the cancer was confined to only one breast. She explained that her mother had breast cancer, and she herself had tested positive for the BRCA1 gene mutation which is linked to both breast and ovarian cancer. Applegate described her decision to have the double mastectomy as a “logical” one considering her circumstances and history.

“I just wanted to kind of be rid of it,” she said. “So this was the choice I made and it was a tough one.”Tough one, indeed! It must’ve been a heart-wrenching decision.Christina Applegate declared that she is definitely not going to die from breast cancer, and now, after the double mastectomy, she is considered cancer free.She described her emotional roller coaster since her diagnosis as a time of so much crying and anger and self-pity at times. However, she accepts all that as part of the healing process. She wants anyone going through such a personal crisis to know that it’s okay to cry.

“It’s OK to fall on the ground and just scream if you want to.”However, the anger and crying and self-pity isn’t all that has been going on as part of this emotional and physical journey. The highs and lows of this experience is evident when she said:“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 is to be commended for appearing on television only three weeks after her surgery and also for how she has begun working as an activist for cancer research. She will appear in the one-hour TV special, “Stand Up to Cancer” that will be on all three networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) on September 5. The program will raise funds for cancer research. She is also starting a program to help meet the costs of doctor-ordered MRIs, the procedure that is credited with the early detection of her own breast cancer. Often MRIs are not covered by insurance.