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I spent some time in the hospital recently, and I’ve been thinking a lot about it lately because a hospital is the last place I’d want to be now. Rachel Bloom just gave birth to her first child, which needed treatment in the NICU. She said that that the week was the “most emotionally intense” of her and husband Dan Gregor’s lives. Hospitals have begun canceling elective surgeries. While this is considered safe, it also means that thousands of patients are in pain and discomfort. My hope is that those surgeries are going to be scheduled as soon as possible once it’s safe to perform them.

Singer Rebecca Crews, wife of Terry Crews, is opening up about both her recent breast cancer diagnosis and the double-mastectomy that she underwent in early March, just before the world changed:

Crews, 54, was diagnosed with Stage 1 Breast Cancer only a few weeks ago. In that time, she’s already undergone a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery.

“Though it was Stage 1, you’re overwhelmed with fear, like cancer is this all-consuming, all-powerful evil entity,” she tells PEOPLE.

Now cancer-free and resting at home in Pasadena, California, Crews opened up to PEOPLE about surviving cancer and what it’s taught her.

Her journey began about 12 years ago, when she had a radial scar — a small, pre-cancerous lump — removed from her right breast. Her mother had a small, cancerous lump removed from her breast last year. Aside from that, Crews says, nobody in her family had a history of cancer.

Still, out of caution, Crews has always requested both a mammogram and ultrasound during her annual physicals.

She was in high spirits heading into her most recent checkup a few weeks ago. Even though her mammogram came back clear, Crews insisted she have an ultrasound conducted on her breasts as well. “I had this gut feeling, like, ‘Better safe than sorry,’ ” she recalls.

That ultrasound revealed a small, swollen lump in her right breast, which required a biopsy.

Laying on the examination table, Crews says she felt eerily calm. “I just thought to myself, ‘Okay, if they find something, Rebecca, just cut it off and reconstruct it,’ ” she says.

Crews then had to wait for her biopsy results as the tissue was tested for cancer.

Crews was sitting in her driveway when she got the call. “After the call I had this clear vision of myself stepping through a door, and on the other side of this door, the sun was shining brightly and I was very happy,” she recalls. “I just had this sense that I was going to be okay.”

[From People]

Good for Rebecca for pushing for the ultrasound, despite having a clear mammogram. She listened to her “gut feeling,” and it paid off. It would have been easy to ignore it and to assume that because her mammogram was clear, she had nothing to be concerned about.

Rebecca had surgery on March 3, and has been recovering at home, and Terry has been taking great care of her. She’s had to be extremely careful because she now has a compromised immune system and also has to go out for follow-up appointments. She told People that she’s had a hard time distinguishing between post-surgery aches and symptoms of the virus, as pressure in the chest is common for both. She’s also woken up in the middle of the night and had difficulty breathing.

I’m so happy for Rebecca that her cancer was discovered when it was Stage 1 and that she’s cancer-free and is at home resting. I can’t imagine how scary it must be to have to worry about getting ill during a pandemic when your health is already compromised. She said that she’s doing some soul searching and deciding what’s important in her life. She feels that her life is balanced and that she has “so many happy, exciting things to focus on.” It seems that Rebecca is feeling as well as can be expected, that she’s mentally in a good place, and that she has a lot of support from Terry, their children, and her family and friends. I hope that her recovery continues to go well!

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