“Baywatch” Alum Nicole Eggert Says More Cancer Has Been Found in Her Lymph Nodes
The former 'Charles in Charge' star previously shared last month that she was diagnosed with breast cancer
Baywatch alum Nicole Eggert has revealed that doctors have found more cancer in her lymph nodes.
Weeks after initially announcing that she was diagnosed with stage 2 cribriform carcinoma breast cancer in early December, the 52-year-old actress has now shared with Inside Edition on Thursday that more cancer was discovered in her lymph nodes.
"It's horrible," Eggert said. "It's horrible."
Eggert — whose mother had colon cancer and father had skin cancer — previously opened up to PEOPLE in January about her breast cancer diagnosis after she gained 25 lbs. in three months and had “terrible pain” in her left breast in October. She later felt a lump during a self-exam.
As she has since detailed to Inside Edition, her "heart dropped" when she felt the lump, and she said initially she couldn't get a mammogram appointment. "So I walked into every breast care center like, 'Please, please, please,'" Eggert said. "It's horrifying because every minute and every day that passes, you know it's growing."
As for her type of breast cancer, the mother of two — daughters Keegan, 12, and Dilyn, 25 — told Inside Edition that cribriform carcinoma breast cancer is "very rare" and that the implants she got as a teenager it more difficult to detect the cancer.
"If I didn't have them and I had my smaller, natural breasts, I'm sure I would've felt it much sooner," she said. "... When I was on Baywatch, it was very in to be very thin with big boobs. I was the opposite because I was wearing this red bathing suit that was flattening me."
Eggert added that she "made the decision" to get implants as a late teen without "thinking [it] through," telling Inside Edition that it was a "huge mistake."
Previously opening up to PEOPLE last month about her diagnosis, Eggert explained that she initially had to get a discovery mammogram and three biopsies after noticing the lump in her breast, calling the journey "rough for me."
“I have panics where I'm like, just get this out of me,” she said. “You sit there and it's in you and you're like, every second that passes and it's inside of me. It's growing, and you're just like, you just want it out.”
At the time, she called getting implants "a stupid 18 year old decision." She has since had multiple breast augmentation surgeries and appeared on E! reality show Botched in 2015 to reduce her breast size.
“I look at all these younger girls doing it and think, ‘God, leave your bodies alone!’ But when you have to put on that one-piece and it's like you're so flat that it's like pleating — you got pleats across the front...” she told PEOPLE. “You're like, ‘What is this?’ Nothing you can do. You can't stuff it with anything. You can't do anything.”
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in the United States outside of skin cancers. The National Cancer Institute notes that early detection gives patients a head start on treatment and decrease the likelihood of cancer spreading. Women should also start thinking about getting annual mammograms when they turn 40 and get them yearly by the time they're 45, per the American Cancer Society.
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Mindy Molinary, a friend of the Baywatch alum, has since launched a GoFundMe page to support her financially, because she is a single mother. Eggert also said she wants to "start a non-profit for other single parents such as myself, who don't have any family, don't have anybody to turn to."
“I've gotten such an outpouring of love and it makes you feel so good. It changes your whole day and other people just don't have that,” Eggert said. “So I really want to figure out a way to give back to other parents that are in my situation that aren't as fortunate.”
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