Dreyfus

Seinfeld actress Julia Louis Dreyfus talked about her diagnosis of breast cancer recently. Speaking at the 2023 New Yorker Festival on October 7 she recollected the diagnosis she received in 2017 and said that her reaction was far from ordinary.

“I started laughing. Well, because the night before, I had won an Emmy. And so, I came downstairs and… the Emmy was there. It was like on the dining room table. I’m coming down to get coffee. My cell phone rings, and it’s my doctor saying, ‘Guess what, you have cancer.”

“And I’m like, Huh? What?’ And so, it was a very bizarre juxtaposition. And of course, I did laugh, and then I became hysterical, crying, because I was terrified, as most people are, or as all people are if they get a diagnosis like that.”

Dreyfus said that she was lucky to have a strong and supportive family comprising her sisters, husband, sons, mother and stepmother all rallying behind her.

To get through the tough chemotherapy sessions she said that she focused on a memory of an unnerving moment from her past where she was swimming in the water and a shark was approaching her but she was far away from the boat.

She said that in that situation she just focused on the ladder of the boat and started swimming toward it single mindedly. She said using the same focus is how she got over her cancer treatment. It was just like looking at the ladder one pointedly.

On the diagnosis she said that she doesn’t think it’s completely stress related although she did put herself through a lot of stress. She now works hard to eliminate stress in her life although it is difficult cause stress is a given in a lot of situations she says.

“I’m not saying I got cancer from stress, necessarily, but it’s not good for you. And it’s also not a happy place to live in. So I’m just very focused on … trying to enjoy my life as much as possible.”

She also said that as she enters her 60s, she looks forward to aging and uses writer Isabel Allende as her inspiration. “I believe she’s 82 or 83 and the way she’s talks about it, she’s let go of so much. I said to her, I can’t wait to be 83, I mean, for real,” she added.

Read More News

Democrats signal support for rescue of McCarthy but changed course

The photo above is from Wikipedia