Comedian Pauly Shore begged his followers to get a health check after a preventative scan revealed a tumor inside his pancreas.
The Encino Man star, 57, posted a video on Instagram Wednesday revealing he’d undergone surgery to have the benign tumor removed.
A benign tumor is a non-cancerous mass of cells that grows slowly and generally does not spread to other parts of the body or invade surrounding tissues.
“GUYS PLEASE GO GET A BODY SCAN,” Shore implored in the caption of his post.
“About three months ago, I went in for a preventative scan in Las Vegas at SimonMed, where they scan your body from head to toe. They check for tumors, cancer, aneurysms, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, you name it. Being in my 50s, I thought it was the right thing to do. A week later, they called me with the results. They noticed something in my abdominal area. It was a tumor inside my pancreas. I contacted my doctors in LA, and that’s when everything got put into motion,” he wrote.
“Thankfully, my tumor was benign, it might have been there for 15 to 20 years. It wasn’t an emergency, but my doctor felt removing it was the right thing to do. Mentally, it really messed with me. Knowing there was a tumor inside me… Could it grow? Burst? Turn into something worse? You just don’t know. I’ve always been on top of my health. Going to the gym, using saunas, massages, having my teeth checked, doing blood work, colonoscopies, chiropractor, etc., but I had never done a full-body scan. I had no symptoms. This was just me following my instincts.”
The comedian acknowledged that preventative scans are rare, in part due to the costs associated in the U.S. as they can run up to more than $2,000.
“I still have my whole pancreas. I stayed one night in the hospital and then three nights at home with pain medication,” he continued. “Instinct played a huge role in this. If I hadn’t followed mine and gotten that scan, I might have never found out about the tumor. Please share this message and video with your friends. Maybe I can help save someone’s life by encouraging them to get a preventative scan, or even just going to the doctor and talking about prevention. And maybe they can save someone else’s life too. You want to find it before it finds you.
“I’m all right, and I’m healing every day. I love you all, Pauly.”
In an accompanying video, Shore showed followers inside his hospital room with his nurse before his surgery, calling his tumor a “little devil that’s in me.”
The clip then cut to five days later with Shore outside hospital speaking about his recovery.
He became overwhelmed with emotion and broke down in tears while acknowledging, “It’s been tough. The aftermath of an abdomen surgery is pretty f—ing hard… It’s just wild. It’s been a lot.”