The health scare began when Sandra began experiencing an extremely painful buildup of fluid in the area where she underwent surgery, a close friend told Page Six on Aug. 3. Though she was conscious and alert when taken to the hospital around 9:30pm, her condition was not immediately known, which no doubt made for a scary situation. “She’s going to be in for a couple of days,” the friend told Page Six. “She started having pain. She knew something was wrong. It’s some sort of fluid buildup and pain. She was just feeling general fatigue and run down.”
Sandra, who is the longtime girlfriend of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, 57, was reportedly at his pal Bill Joel’s, 66, farewell concert for the soon-to-be shuttered Nassau Coliseum on Long Island, but rushed to the Food Network star’s side when he got word of her condition. Sandra’s doctors will reportedly continue to monitor the situation for the next couple of days.
[pmc-ndn placementid=”ndn-video-player-2″ videoid=”111″]Sandra was diagnosed with a common form of breast cancer in March 2015 after a routine mammogram, and made the decision in May to have a double mastectomy, even though the cancer was only found in her right breast, in an attempt to avoid radiation. “I never want to go through this again,” she said on Good Morning America on May 12.
Still, despite being stunned by the diagnosis, the 48-year-old has remained positive by using her difficult situation as a way to raise awareness for others. “I plan to spread the word about early detection,” she explained on GMA, adding, “My doctor called me a poster girl for mammography.” (Women aren’t generally suggested to begin getting regular mammograms at the age of 50).
“I don’t want women to wait. That’s why I’m talking,” she said. “If it saves one person, and makes one more person go get a mammogram, and if they’re sitting down right now watching this — don’t watch this TV. Go pick your phone up, and call your doctor and get your rear end in there and get a mammogram right now.”
Our thoughts are with Sandra and her family at this difficult time.
— Alyssa Montemurro