Tennessee-born Kathy Bates is a stage and screen performer, best known for her award-winning appearances in Misery, Primary Colors, Clint Eastwood’s Richard Jewell and American Horror Story: Coven. The actor, who’s earned several nominations since she started her career in the early 1970s, is recognized for her terrifying, dramatic, and comedic roles. In 2003, only one year after shocking audiences when she appeared all nude in her starring role opposite Jack Nicholson in About Schmidt, Bates learned she had ovarian cancer. Then, in 2012, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, that resulted in a double mastectomy. Bates’ bad luck with her health wasn’t going to improve.

“Then I got something called lymphedema,” she told Kelly Clarkson when she appeared on her show in 2019. “I don’t know if you’ve heard of it, but for cancer, they remove lymph nodes. I don’t care anywhere in your body. If your lymph system is damaged, oftentimes the fluid will back up in the affected limb.” In treating cancers, lymph nodes are often removed because the invasive disease often travels through the lymphatic system. Once the nodes are gone, extra lymph fluid can build up in tissues and cause swelling, usually in the arm and hand. Speaking with SurvivorNet, the Dolores Claiborne star shares the hardest part of her health journey wasn’t cancer, but the lymphedema, a side effect of her surgery.

“I went berserk,” she said. “I left the examining room and ran out of the building. I still had my drains in, I was holding a pillow to my t*ts, and I thought, ‘What am I doing? It’s July, I’m standing out here, it’s hot, I’m still healing, I don’t want to hurt anything.’” The Fried Green Tomatoes star added: “I was bitter, I was depressed. I thought my career was over, I thought, ‘There’s no way, I’m done, everything is done.’” Though the condition is incurable and progressive, The National Health Service (NHS) reports that lymphedema’s major symptoms are treatable by using measures that limit fluid accumulation.