Busy Phillips, 47, revealed she was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor in February, telling People that she's experienced "the weirdest six months of my life" after undergoing two surgeries.
"I'm grateful that I'm alive," Phillips shared as she recovers from a grade 2 oligodendroglioma, which is found in only 1,100 to 1,300 people per year in the U.S., according to her neuro-oncologist, Dr. Alexandra Miller.
Phillips noted that after one of her trusted sources, Dr. Orrin Devinsky, a neurologist at NYU Langone, reviewed her MRI, the reality of her condition set in.
"'This is a real tumor, and it's inside your brain. And, Busy, it's got to come out,'" Philipps recalled Devinsky telling her on the phone. "I was hyperventilating and trying to breathe."
After her surgery on March 2, a mass in her brain measuring 2.6 centimeters was removed and biopsied.

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Busy Philipps learned she had a brain tumor after getting a full-body scan in February
The tumor, which was removed and biopsied during a surgery in March was identified as a rare grade 2 oligodendroglioma
Philipps recalls the moment the doctor who reviewed her MRI called her with news she needed to have the surgery: "The wind sort of knocked out of me," she tells PEOPLE
Busy Philipps recalls the exact moment she learned she needed surgery to remove a brain tumor.
In a new interview with PEOPLE, the Cougar Town alum, 47, details how she got a full-body Prenuvo scan in February, which showed she had a lesion on her brain. She needed a follow-up MRI to get a closer look, and Dr. Orrin Devinsky of NYU Langone reviewed the scan.

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