Kate Walsh’s Surprising Health Scare: ‘I Just Left My Body'

Actress Kate Walsh appears to be happy and healthy, but she had a recent health scare!

In 2015, Walsh was diagnosed with a brain tumor after struggling with cognition issues. She revealed to Cosmopolitan, "It felt like aphasia, but it wasn't just not being able to find words; I would lose my train of thought, I wasn't able to finish sentences, and that was when I got really alarmed.”

After visiting a neurologist, Kate learned that she had a brain tumor in her left frontal lobe. She reflected, “The words 'brain tumor' were never in my zeitgeist. I went in for the MRI, and you know it's serious when they don't even wait, they're like, 'Hey, the radiologist wants to see you.' And she starts to say, 'Well, it looks like you have a very sizable brain tumor' — and I just left my body. My assistant had driven me there, and I had to go get her so that she could take notes, because I was gone. It was never anything I would have imagined.”

Of the tumor, Kate shared, "They suspected that it was benign, but they wouldn't know for sure until they got in there. It was over 5cm, like a small lemon in my head, causing quite a bit of damage: there was a lot of swelling, and I had started getting shooting pains in my head. I shattered my pinkie the night before my MRI, because I had no depth perception. It was crazy.”

Fortunately, the doctors determined that the tumor was benign and she was able to focus on the recovery process. She said, "I love to work hard and do 800 things at once, and this was a really amazing lesson in just submitting to the process of healing. I did exactly what the doctors told me to do, and asked tons of questions when I had them, and got lots of support, and just took my time.”

The brain tumor was a “wake-up call” for Kate, who “took about nine months off.” She would eventually go back to work and shoot “Girls Trip," “13 Reasons Why” and “Felt.”

On Monday, Kate opened up about her brain tumor while urging others to get checked out on “Today.” Watch!