"Days of Our Lives" actress Kassie DePaiva is opening up about her health journey.
In July 2016, DePaiva was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia shortly after she returned as Eve Donovan on the long-running soap opera. During a scheduling break, she had flown to New York because she felt like something was wrong.
"I went to a country jamboree up at Hunter Mountain, and I’m sitting on a chair lift… I feel under my arm, I go, ‘That’s weird.’ I felt two knots. So I thought, ‘Hmmm.’ And they weren’t painful. I know I didn’t feel bad, nothing," she shared with "Dishing with Digest" podcast co-hosts Stephanie Sloane and Mara Levinsky.
The veteran actress, who also has held a role on "General Hospital," continued, "I called and set up an appointment with my doctor and said, ‘Okay, coming back in July. Can you fit me in because I have these little knots? I just want to make sure everything’s okay.’ Well, did a biopsy, and you know the rest is history."
After receiving her test results, she discovered that she didn't have breast cancer (at the time), but instead received her leukemia diagnosis.
LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
"I did get breast cancer a year later," DePaiva shared. "I laugh and am like, ‘Can you believe it?’ But I had a lumpectomy and everything was clear and so right now, as it stands, I’m cancer-free and happy."
The soap star shared what it was like to go through chemotherapy after she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.
"I was explaining how chemo is just so awful for your body and how it's not day to day, it's minute to minute," DePaiva said. "You know, you think, 'Okay, I’m gonna be good,' and then you get up and all of a sudden your body eliminates… I mean it was, are you faint or are you gonna throw up?"
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER
She added, "It’s just yucky, and you just think, ‘This is never gonna end,’ and then it does, and then you go, ‘Did I go through with that?’ I cannot believe it, and that’s kind of where I am now with, like, ‘I can’t believe the journey,’ but I’m grateful."
In August 2016, DePaiva shared her leukemia diagnosis on her blog and noted that she had spent six weeks in the hospital and expected to be hospitalized for longer.
"I have amazing prayer warriors, family, and friends that have been extremely supportive," DePaiva wrote on her blog at the time. "Although I'm unable to be 'camera ready' now...my goal is (to) get back to stirring up trouble in Salem soon."
Since DePaiva is now cancer-free, she is expected to return as her role as Blair Cramer in new episodes of "General Hospital."
