Megan Thanks Mom After Grammy Win
- Rapper Megan Thee Stallion won a Grammy last night for “Best New Artist,” and also took home awards for rap performance and rap song.
- Megan lost her mom to a brain tumor in 2019.
- Losing a parent is a difficult experience, and can be helped with formal resources such as therapy.
In her acceptance speech for the “Best Rap Performance” Grammy, which she won for “Savage Remix” with Beyonce, Megan paid tribute to her late mom, saying, “Thank you, Lord. My grandma. Thank you momma for pushing me and knowing that I was gonna be here…Thank you Houston, thank you fans…I love y'all so much. Thank you for believing in me."
Read MoreMegan’s Mom’s Brain Tumor
Megan’s mother, Holly Thomas, passed from a brain tumor in 2019. We don’t know the specifics around Thomas’s brain tumor and her treatment path, but we do know that brain tumors can result from brain cancer, as well as from other cancers. This is especially true of when cancer spreads from one area of the body to the brain; when a cancer spreads it is often called “metastatic cancer,” or advanced cancer. With cancer that has spread, treatment options may be more limited.
In a previous interview, Dr. Melanie Hayden Gephart, a neurosurgeon at Stanford Medicine, explains the spread of cancer. She says, "Lung cancer is one of the most common types of tumors to metastasize to the brain. I think the key is that if we can minimize the side effects of the treatment, that's our main goal, and provide effective treatment of the brain tumor. That frequently looks like a combination of systemic chemotherapy, or targeted therapies, focused radiation, and surgery."
"Surgery's indicated if the tumor is over a certain size, is otherwise limited, and if the patient has a significant neurologic deficit that is associated with that tumor itself,” says Dr. Gephart. “Focused radiation is ideal if there's a small number of small-volume tumors. Whole-brain radiation is indicated if the patient has failed other mechanisms of systemic treatment and has too many tumors that could be treated with focused radiation."
"Sometimes when patients are diagnosed with metastatic brain tumors, right at the initial time of diagnosis where they're treatment-naive have not seen any treatments if they have a particular mutation and can get targeted therapy, even the brain metastases can respond well to systemic chemotherapy."
When Lung Cancer Spreads to the Brain
Coping with the Loss of a Parent
As Grammy-award-winning Megan Thee Stallion knows, losing a parent is tough. And coping with the emotions that accompany that life-changing loss can feel overwhelming. Many people find resources like therapy to be beneficial to help deal with their emotions of grief.
Camila Legaspi was only in high school when she lost her mom to breast cancer. She says in an earlier interview that therapy helped her to find perspective, and know that things would eventually get better. In an earlier interview, she says, “Therapy saved my life. I was dealing with some really intense anxiety and depression at that point. It just changed my life, because I was so drained by all the negativity that was going on.”
“Going to a therapist helped me realize that there was still so much out there for me, that I still had my family, that I still had my siblings,” says Legaspi. “The reality is, is when you lose someone, it’s really, really, really hard. And it’s totally OK to talk to someone. And I’m so happy that I talked to my therapist. Keep your chin up, and it’s going to be OK. No matter what happens, it’s going to be OK.”
"Therapy Saved My Life": After Losing A Loved One, Don't Be Afraid To Ask For Help
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