From Cancer to Career Changes, Kathy Bates Talks Life's Challenges

Kathy Bates knows how to roll with the punches. In the last 14 years, she has beaten bohttps://parade.com/590180/nicolepajer/from-cancer-to-career-changes-kathy-bates-talks-lifes-challenges/th ovarian cancer and breast cancer. And, after a long and lauded career in film, the 69-year-old actress has shifted her focus to TV, starring in four seasons of FX’s American Horror Story and playing actress Joan Blondell in FX’s Feud. Next, she’ll star as Ruth, the owner of a California cannabis dispensary, in Netflix’s comedy Disjointed, out August 25.

An ongoing challenge for Bates is lymphedema, a blockage in the lymphatic system often triggered by removing lymph nodes during breast cancer surgery. The chronic condition causes excessive swelling in the arms and legs and affects 10 million Americans, “yet nobody really knows what it is,” says Bates. She’s now a spokesperson for the Lymphatic Education & Research Network (LE&RN).
We caught up with Bates to talk about lymphedema, her newfound niche in TV and ditching the prosthetics after a double mastectomy.

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