Park So-dam reveals thyroid papillary carcinoma surgery... voice recovered after 6 months

Park So-dam revealed her experience with thyroid papillary carcinoma surgery and the recovery process afterward. Appearing on episode 5 of MBC variety show ″Songs That Endured Today - Playlist 109,″ Park So-dam shared that during the filming of the movie ″Phantom,″ she felt low energy and depression. She confided in her seniors about her condition at that time and expressed regret for not being able to fully perform her role during filming. She said Lee Ha-nee comforted her by crying together. Park So-dam explained that she had lived near Seokchon Lake since she was five years old, and after the surgery, her physical strength significantly declined, so she tried to recover by walking around Seokchon Lake. She mentioned that she cried every day during the recovery process and wore a sun cap to let her emotions flow. She said her close friends joked that all the tears in Seokchon Lake must have been hers, indicating how difficult that period was. Recalling the day she was diagnosed with thyroid papillary carcinoma, she remembered hearing the diagnosis from a professor and that her mother was by her side, but she couldn’t properly see that moment. When she told her father about the diagnosis during a meal, he left the table and seemed to have cried. She said the test results showed 13 lumps in her neck and that the cancer had spread to the lymph nodes. Park So-dam explained that she needed to use her voice, but the largest lump was attached to the high-pitched nerve, and if it was invaded, she could lose her voice. She said she couldn’t promote the movie and went straight to surgery. Since it was her first time under general anesthesia, she felt anxious and was also afraid of the recovery period. Fortunately, the cancer stopped at the lymph nodes, so she did not have to undergo chemotherapy. It took six months for her voice to fully recover after surgery, and at first, her voice sounded like a child’s. Her younger sister helped her wash her hair, and she was very worried about recovering her voice to continue acting. Finally, in ″Phantom,″ the last project she filmed, she had to scream a lot in her role as Yuriko, and she burst into tears as soon as she saw the director during the dubbing session. She said she was worried about how to promote the movie but finished the recording. Regarding the biggest change since the surgery, Park So-dam said she began to contemplate what else she could do besides acting. Having never traveled abroad alone, she drove and traveled around Europe for 34 days and even saw the aurora in Iceland. She also mentioned the experience of taking an impromptu trip. Park So-dam said she wished she hadn’t gotten sick but felt that she had been seriously ill. She felt that she had lost herself for a while amid her busy life but now intends to take care of herself and keep trying until she can share her own story.