Comedy icon Kathy Griffin is doing well after a successful surgery, ‘per her doctor’, her rep revealed on Aug. 2.
UPDATE: Just hours after revealing she’s battling cancer, Kathy Griffin’s rep told PEOPLE that she’s “now out of surgery” and “everything went well”, according to her doctor. No other details were revealed at the time.
ORIGINAL STORY: Kathy Griffin, 60, took to social media on Monday August 2 to tell fans that she’d been diagnosed with stage-one lung cancer. She revealed that she’s going to have surgery to have half of her left lung taken out as a treatment. Even though it’s certainly shocking news, Kathy said that her doctors have high hopes for the procedure, and she wants to start bringing her hilarious comedy to fans again.
The comedian said that even though it came as a surprise, her doctors are “optimistic” that she won’t need further treatment. “Yes, I have lung cancer even though I’ve never smoked,” she said. “Hopefully no chemo or radiation after this, and I should have normal function with my breathing. I should be up and running around as usual in a month or less.”
The My Life on The D-List star encouraged fans to get on top of their medical issues, and she mentioned that she is already vaccinated for COVID-19. “Of course I am fully vaccinated for Covid. The consequences of being unvaccinated would have been even more serious. Please stay up to date on your medical check ups. It’ll save your life,” she wrote. Kathy had another health scare back in March 2020, when she came down with severe symptoms returning home from Mexico. As the COVID-19 pandemic ramped up, Kathy wrote that she’d been scared that she had the virus.
While it’s definitely scary, Kathy seemed confident that everything will pan out okay, and it sounds like she’s excited to tell jokes again. “It’s been a helluva 4 years, trying to get back to work, making you guys laugh, and entertaining you, but I’m gonna be just fine,” she said. The message seemed to reference backlash she received for jokes that she made about former President Donald Trump. The comic came under fire in 2017, when a photo of her with a beheaded Trump went viral.