Last summer, the soap world was shocked when daytime veteran Kassie DePaiva announced on her blog that she was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia.
It was a shocking and daunting diagnosis to say the least, and even derailed the actress’s plans to return to Days of Our Lives (DOOL) as Eve for a big story.
However, she knew that focusing on her health and recovery had to be her priority and entered intense treatment within days of diagnosis, according to the May 15 issue of Soap Opera Digest, where she told her story.
“My first hospital stay was 24 days,” De Paiva told Digest. “When you’re in the middle of it, it wasn’t even one day at a time, it was one moment at a time. In the hospital, I would think ‘Okay, I’m feeling really good, and it’s 8 o’clock in the morning. Three people want to come over and visit.’
“By 12 o’clock, I could be completely nauseous, have a high fever, throwing up, diarrhea…you never know how your body’s going to react.”
DePaiva went through several rounds of chemo, with each one being stronger and admits to having had mouth sores, lack of taste, and her hair completely falling out after the first round.
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Through it all, DePaiva had her husband, James (Max, One Life to Live) by her side, as well as an outpouring of support from the soap world.
Her former OLTL castmates, including Gina Tognoni and Kristen Alderson, would visit her in the hospital regularly and DAYS co-stars would call or text her in NY.
It was on World Cancer Day in February that DePaiva announced she was in remission. However, she still has to have her bone marrow checked every three months, and cancer is not typically considered officially cured for five years.
DePaiva hopes that one day she’ll return to daytime, and had made peace with whatever would happen to her during her treatment. And, she credits her positive attitude with how far she’s come.
“I do believe that having a positive outlook was totally what kept me going,” she told Digest. “I was okay if that was what God had chosen to take me out. I was okay to die. I just wasn’t ready to. That’s all.”
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