A Proud Survivor and Proud Icon for the Gay Community
- In case you didn’t know, outspoken comedian Kathy Griffin, 61, is a bit of a gay icon and her new dildo and rainbow-filled fan art proves it! Though Griffin is heterosexual and married, she has always been an active voice for the gay community and openly promotes free love.
- The lung cancer survivor struggled for months to restore her voice after surgery. Fans continue to share their love and support after Griffin finally had a recent procedure that worked for her.
- Lung cancer surgery impacts the body in various ways. It may cause fatigue, leaving the patient feeling weak and tired. There's also the risk of infection after surgery. Signs of infection after lung cancer surgery can include: shivering, feeling nauseous, swelling or redness around the surgical wound, and fluctuating temperature.
In case you didn’t know, outspoken comedian Kathy Griffin is a bit of a gay icon and her new fan art proves it! Though Griffin is heterosexual and married, she has always been an active voice for the gay community and openly promotes free love.
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Griffin posted the stark opposite of this in her prior post, posing with a dainty, flowered colanders she received as a gift. “Laraine Newman gave me this colander. I love her and now i'm just going to walk around pointing to it for a while,” she joked in reference to pointing at the present in her photo.
Fans were happy about her new colander and all, but not as much as she was! Griffin’s followers were more into getting more info about her health, as they have been living for her updates throughout her intense healing process after beating lung cancer.
“I’m so happy you’re voice is better and how much that has raised your spirits! You’re a fighter with a damn good sense of humor,” one fan wrote, and we have to agree. The quick-witted star is absolutely hilarious and has been showing such courage, displaying humor even during darker times.
It was quite a struggle for her to get her voice back after lung cancer surgery damaged her vocal cords. And now? Another fan says it best:
“You look the picture of health. Great work Kathy,” while a third fan inquired about her recent botox vocal surgery, which sure seemed to do the trick judging from one of her last video updates. Fans went bananas upon hearing how wonderful she sounds after dealing with a hoarse, whispery voice for months.
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"I made a Tic Tac!" The comedian joked in the caption of her first video post since restoring her voice.
"Hi Tik Tokkers, my name is Kathy Griffin," the Malibu-based star began in the video, as she goes into what she thinks an "NFT" is. For fans viewing it, they clearly don't care what she is saying, all that they could notice is her voice is back!
Perhaps purposely not addressing the obvious as a surprise for her fans, the Grammy winner's vocal cords finally sound almost completely back to normal.
"Your voice is BACK baby!" one fan wrote. "She is back to sounding like Kathy," said another. "I LOVE HEARING YOUR VOICE," chimed in a third in all caps.
Slowly but surely, her voice had been improving, but the procedure she had done last month getting injections of some sort of "filler" down her throatas uncomfortable as it may sounddid the trick.
Side Effects: Managing Pain and Discomfort after Lung Cancer Surgery
Prior to that, Griffin had a hard time swallowing food and life back to work proved difficult for the Grammy-winning comic when she couldn’t project her voice while up on stage, making it difficult for attendees to hear her sets.
We’re so happy that Griffin put in the time and effort to help nurse herself back to life. Sometimes it’s easy to just give up when things get difficult, but Griffin shows what you can achieve if you push yourself out of the depression of cancer and its after effects. It’s a step-by-step, day-to-day process and you can’t put too much pressure on yourself to heal overnight.
Griffin's Voice & Lung Cancer Battle
Kathy Griffin was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2021 and has been very public about her diagnosis and cancer battle. She's a non-smoker and was diagnosed with stage 1 lung cancer. A stage 1 lung cancer diagnosis indicates that the cancer hasn't spread to the lymph nodes or other organs in the body.
Symptoms of lung cancer typically include:
- Sudden and unexplained weight loss
- Constant coughing that becomes painful over time
- Shortness of breath
- Changes in voice or difficulty speaking without getting winded
- Pain in the torso, mid- and upper-back, and shoulders
- Discoloration or a sudden change in color of mucus and saliva
Griffin had surgery to treat her disease, which, as she shares, impacted her voice and her vocal cords. Lung cancer surgery impacts the body in various ways. It may cause fatigue, leaving the patient feeling weak and tired. There's also the risk of infection after surgery. Signs of infection after lung cancer surgery can include: shivering, feeling nauseous, swelling or redness around the surgical wound, and fluctuating temperature. Speak with your doctor if you experience any of these things.
Breathlessness is also normal after lung cancer surgery. Long-term pain can present as well. A study published by the European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery examined the risk factors of vocal cord dysfunction (VCD) following lung cancer surgery in patients. The study found that 86100% of patients reported hoarseness after surgery following RLN paralysis (a nerve injury that has the potential to occur after surgery for lung cancer). And in 45% of the patients studied, hoarseness was the only symptom of VCD after lung surgery.
Positivity Through Cancer Remission
We love Kathy Griffin's renewed voice and her ongoing positive attitude through lung cancer and into remission. Signing off her video, after debuting her new voice, she says, "I love you guys." Griffin is full of love and positivity, and that matters.
Focusing on hope, and maintaining a positive attitude through a cancer battle can help. Anecdotal evidence from SurvivorNet experts points to how a positive mindset can impact a cancer prognosis. One oncologist at Cedars-Sinai tells SurvivorNet in an earlier interview, "My patients who thrive, even with stage 4 cancer, from the time that they, about a month after they're diagnosed, I kind of am pretty good at seeing who is going to be OK. Now doesn't that mean I'm good at saying that the cancer won't grow," he says.
‘Stay Positive, It Matters,’ Says Leading Cancer Surgeon
"But I'm pretty good at telling what kind of patient are going to still have this attitude and probably going to live the longest, even with bad, bad disease. And those are patients who, they have gratitude in life."
Contributing by Anne McCarthy
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