Brooke Burke-Charvet is ready to focus on healing.
Confirming her thyroid cancer diagnosis in November, the Dancing With the Stars cohost underwent a successful thyroidectomy Thursday, Dec. 6. "Thank God it's over. I'm clean, surgery went well and I can talk. Losing my voice was my biggest fear," Burke-Charvet, 41, tweeted after her procedure. "Thanks for all your prayers and light."
Prior to going under the knife, the star posted a candid snapshot of herself in a hospital gown on her WhoSay page to provide "last looks at her neck." Though she was in good spirits leading up to her procedure, Burke-Charvet confirmed she was emotionally and physically drained afterward. "Feels like I got hit by a car," she tweeted.
Burke-Charvet — married to Baywatch alum David Charvet — has been blogging about her health struggle for Modern Mom, and recently opened up about how she told her family about her diagnosis. "I decided not to tell my children about my diagnosis for as long as I possibly could because I didn't want them to worry," the mother of four wrote on her Modern Mom blog Wednesday. "I know that my younger ones still don't have a great concept of time and I didn't want them to be anxious, worried and asking 1,000 questions."
Children Neriah and Sierra were the first to find out, but it was Burke-Charvet's son Shaya whose reaction shocked the TV personality most. "[He would say] 'I don't want Mommy to die' [and that] is "the stuff that breaks my heart and scares me," she blogged.
As she prepared for her procedure, Burke also focused on her healing process, and anticipated a speedy recovery. "I'm not afraid anymore," Burke-Charvet reasoned. "I think I've been dealing with it so much the past couple months that now I'm ready to just get it done and put this behind me. My only need is being OK for my husband and my children so they don't have to go through any pain and making this as easy as possible for them."
