THINGS have gone from bad to worse for ROSIE O’DONNELL—heart attack and WORSE!
In early August, the 50-year-old funnylady revealed that her fiancée, Michelle Rounds, is battling a rare and potentially fatal disease, and now Rosie has disclosed she suffered a heart attack recently and is facing a cancer crisis.
As The ENQUIRER previously reported online, when she experienced chest pains on Aug. 14, a TV commercial about heart attack symptoms came to mind and Rosie wrote on her blog: “Thank god/saved by a tv commercial/literally.”
The comic rushed to Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City, where doctors found a coronary artery was 99 percent blocked. Surgeons inserted a stent that expands the clogged artery and Rosie was warned to take better care of herself.
Then, on Aug. 16, Rosie posted a photo of her with Michelle on her blog. In the photo, a red scab is clearly visible on the side of Rosie’s right nostril. Underneath the picture, Rosie wrote: “A little pre-cancer thingy removed on my nose.”
The removed tissue has been sent out for a biopsy to determine if it is skin cancer. And according to a source, Rosie told a pal: “There is never a good time to have cancer, but I need to spend all of my time and energy on taking care of Michelle.”
Michelle, 41, a corporate headhunter, was overcome with excruciating pain on May 13. Rushed to the hospital, she was eventually diagnosed with “desmoid tumors,” a rare condition that Rosie describes as “odd and curious, strong and sneaky, a noncancer that acts cancerous.”
According to the Desmoid Tumor Research Foundation, the tumors attack the connective tissue in the body that holds muscle to bone, along with nerve cells. Although they are not malignant, they can be fatal when they aggressively attack vital organs.
Michelle underwent surgery in June and is “getting stronger every day,” Rosie said in a blog update.
Clearly this hasn’t been a good year for the star. Indeed, just months before Michelle received her frightening diagnosis; Rosie’s talk show on Oprah’s OWN network was canceled.
“This heart attack and the cancer scare are the last things Rosie needs,” continued the source.
Ironically, in an October 2009 appearance on the “Rachael Ray” show, Rosie quipped that exposure to the sun “isn’t dangerous” and that she “lives to tan.”
The statement raised the hackles of groups trying to promote skin cancer awareness. Teri Festa, president of the Ray Festa Melanoma Foundation, said at the time: “[Rosie’s] statement was ill-informed and her viewers deserve to be knowledgeable about the risks of unprotected sun exposure.”
“Now, Rosie herself is learning that lesson the hard way,” added the source.
She made it clear she knew she was the puppet master
