SNL alum Mike O'Brien opens up about cancer scare, face surgeries

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Photo: Ben Gabbe/Getty Images

Former Saturday Night Live writer and cast member Mike O’Brien shared details about his recent cancer scare on Sunday. In a series of Instagram posts, the comedian revealed that he was recently diagnosed with a form of skin cancer and had several surgeries to treat it.

“A couple weeks ago those two little red bumps under my right eye were diagnosed as melanoma, a skin cancer that has taken multiple people in my extended family,” wrote O’Brien in the caption of a pre-surgery photo. “If you have a family history of skin cancer, you should get checked at a dermatologist every 3-6 months.”

O’Brien had surgery a week after his diagnosis. According to him, the surgeons had to make a larger incision than normal because the cancer was so close to his eyes, resulting in a larger scar than he was expecting.

“The great news was that they had removed 2 lymph nodes from my neck and the cancer had not spread to those! I forced myself to do 4 stand up sets in 3 nights to get over the embarrassment of the scar,” he wrote.

Unfortunately, the surgeons weren’t able to remove all of the cancer and he had to have another surgery on his face, which left him “much crabbier.”

“I was much more depressed than the 1st time and didn’t do any live shows. Even canceled a taping of 7 mins in heaven with a fun guest,” he wrote.

To cheer him up, his fellow Man Seeking Woman writers wrote a script filled with inside jokes for him.

Then, late last week, O’Brien’s doctors informed him that they removed all of the melanoma and he wouldn’t need to have surgery again. “I couldn’t have been more thrilled,” he captioned a pictured of him “celebrating with buds.”

After leaving SNL, O’Brien relocated to Los Angeles to focus on other projects. During his SNL tenure, O’Brien was responsible for several memorable sketches and short films, including “The Jay Z Story” and “Grow-A-Guy.” He is also the host of the web series 7 Minutes in Heaven.

See O’Brien’s moving posts below.

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