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American actress Olivia Munn has opened up about how difficult it was seeing her body for the first time after undergoing a double mastectomy.
The 43-year-old, who had a double mastectomy in May last year after being diagnosed a month earlier with breast cancer, says “nothing” could have prepared her for what she’d look like post operation.
“It was a shock,” she says. “It was a shock to my system.”
Although the doctor assured her that she looked great, Olivia found it hard to accept her new appearance.
“I had such a hard time, I remember just looking in the mirror with him [the doctor] and just having no emotion, just taking in what he was saying,” she says.
She also had a lymph node dissection - a surgical procedure where the lymph nodes are removed and a sample of tissue is examined under a microscope to look for cancer.
The Predator star reveals she opted for expanders, which are silicone implants positioned behind the tissues or muscles of the chest wall to progressively expand the skin and make room for permanent breast implants.
She had to do all these surgeries in a space of 10 months and she admits that it “was incredibly hard”.
“I really tried to be prepared, but the truth is that nothing could prepare me for what I would feel like, what it would look like, how I would handle it emotionally,” she says. “It was a lot tougher than I expected."
Now, having undergone reconstructive surgery, she’s slowly adjusting to her changed body.
“It's much better, but it's not the same and that's okay,” she says. “Because I'm here and I'm extremely happy that I got the opportunity to fight.”
Olivia recently took to her social media account to recount her diagnosis.
“In February 2023, in an effort to be proactive about my health, I took a genetic test that checks you for 90 different cancer genes,” she posted on Instagram.
“I tested negative for all including BRCA (the most well-known cancer gene),” she added.
But just two months later her breast cancer was discovered – even though her initial mammogram seemed normal.
READ MORE| Christina Applegate regrets not being more frank about her first cancer diagnosis
Olivia is thankful that doctors detected it early and she had options.
“I was given that chance and I know a lot of people in my situation don't have that as an option,” she says. “So I'm extremely grateful.”
SOURCES: PEOPLE.COM, CBSNEWS.COM
