Kate Walsh Diagnosed with Brain Tumor Two Years Ago

Kate Walsh is revealing that over two years ago, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor, which thankfully was not cancerous and she’s been on the mend.

The 49-year-old actress was diagnosed with “a meningioma the size of a lemon” and had surgery to remove the tumor.

“My pilates instructor said ‘hey, your right side is dipping,’ and it didn’t feel like I was off, but I looked down and could see it. Then when I was driving, I started swerving into the right lane. The exhaustion got to the point where I could drink five cups of coffee and still not feel awake or clear. And then around April, I started having more cognitive difficulties. It felt like aphasia, but it wasn’t just not being able to find words; I would lose my train of thought, I wasn’t able to finish sentences, and that was when I got really alarmed,” Kate told Cosmopolitan of what was going on before her surgery. “I thought maybe it was menopausal symptoms, because there are a lot of the same markers, but I really pushed to see a neurologist, I just had an instinct. I had to really advocate, because they don’t hand out MRIs so easily, but I got an MRI and thank God I did, because it turned out I had a very sizable brain tumor in my left frontal lobe. And three days later I was in surgery having it removed.”

“They suspected that it was benign, but they wouldn’t know for sure until they got in there. It was over 5cm, like a small lemon in my head, causing quite a bit of damage: there was a lot of swelling, and I had starting getting shooting pains in my head,” Kate said. “As much as it was scary, I was sort of in robot mode once I found out. I was relieved that I could get in with a great doctor and one of the most amazing surgeons in the world, and have them take care of it. I had the MRI and three days later I was in surgery, and it was benign and they were able to get all of it.”

We’re so glad Kate is doing well!