YouTube channel ‘Wonderful Life with Song Seung-hwan’

Actor Jung Ae-ri candidly opened up about the pain and fear she experienced while battling ovarian cancer.

On the 9th, Jung Ae-ri appeared on the YouTube channel ‘Wonderful Life with Song Seung-hwan’ and looked back on the process of being diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2016 and undergoing treatment.

Recalling when she was filming a drama and appearing on stage in the play ‘Chinjeong Mom’, she said, “During performances, I lost some weight and it was hard. I had a fever and felt tired, so I figured that must be why. Since I am an actor, when I go on stage, do I not pull myself together and do it.”

However, her condition was more serious than she had thought. She recalled, “One day I went home, and my abdomen hurt so much that I could not move.”

At the hospital, Jung Ae-ri was diagnosed with peritonitis and underwent emergency surgery. She said, “Twenty-four hours after it ruptured, I had surgery. They said it had been a close call. It was on the verge of turning into sepsis.”

After getting through the crisis, an unexpected diagnosis followed. After discharge, when she went to hear the results, she learned that ovarian cancer cells had been found. Jung Ae-ri said, “The doctor said, ‘You will need to change departments.’ I was told to go to the gynecology department at the cancer center,” adding, “Suddenly, I became an ovarian cancer patient.”

Months of chemotherapy followed. One of the hardest moments was when her hair began to fall out. She said, “They said that for women’s cancers, hair inevitably falls out. After the first round of chemotherapy and before the second, not a single strand had fallen, so I wondered, ‘Could there be such a miracle for me?’ but there was no such thing,” adding, “It came out all at once so you could tell it was falling out.”

In the end, Jung Ae-ri chose to shave her head herself. She said, “I did not want to face it thinning in patches. That day I called the hairdresser I had been going to and asked for a house call,” adding, “We shaved it off entirely in my home bathroom.”

The side effects from chemotherapy were also considerable. Jung Ae-ri said, “Hair falls out because chemo weakens the periphery, so the hair roots give way. Your eyebrows also all fall out,” adding, “So I asked for an eyebrow tattoo that would leave only a trace.”

She continued, “I did not lose my toenails or anything like that, but my feet did have side effects. At night when I slept, my feet were uncomfortable and it was hard,” confessing, “It felt as if sand had been poured in and as if the skin of my soles had been crammed in. It was an indescribable discomfort.”

The postoperative aftereffects were not easy either. She said, “Because we did not know where the clean cells were, they made a very long incision,” adding, “My back would not straighten, and a nurse said it might not straighten well, so I deliberately straightened my back and walked up and down the corridor.”

Meanwhile, after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2016, Jung Ae-ri underwent a period of treatment, and she is now fully recovered and has regained her health.