Kathy Griffin comments on recovery following surgery to remove part of lung ...

Kathy Griffin took to social media on Wednesday to update fans on how she was feeling in the wake of a major surgery in which half of her left lung was taken out after she was diagnosed with stage one cancer.

'To be honest, this cancer surgery was a little more than I had anticipated,' said the comic, 60, who has never smoked cigarettes.

Griffin, who recently publicly revealed a substance abuse issue with prescription medication, said that Wednesday would mark her 'first night without any narcotic pain killers' in tow.

'Tonight will be my. Hello Tylenol, my new best friend!' she said. 'The last time I was in a hospital was in June 2020 when I tried to take my life and overdosed on prescription pills.

'With over a year clean and drug free, I now know I can do this and anything I want without those devil pills.'

Griffin said that she fears 'drugs and addiction more than ... cancer,' adding, 'So, I think I'll be ok.'     

Earlier this week, Griffin underwent a successful operation as her surgery 'went well and as planned,' a spokesperson told Deadline. 

'Kathy is now in recovery and resting,' a spokesperson for the comedian told the outlet. 'Doctors say the procedure was normal without any surprises.'

Griffin, who had two siblings who died of cancer in recent years, took to Instagram  earlier on Monday to reveal her cancer diagnosis.

'I've got to tell you guys something. I have cancer,' she told her fans on Instagram.  'I'm going to go into surgery to have half of my left lung removed. Yes, I have lung cancer even though I've never smoked!' 

She went on to tell her fans that the doctors are 'very optimistic,' that surgery will be able to get rid of all the cancer and that no chemo or radiation will be required.

Earlier on Monday, Griffin revealed she attempted suicide last year as she was struggling with addiction to prescription drugs.

Griffin, who was placed in psychiatric hold after her suicide attempt, says she developed her addiction to cope with the backlash she endured after posing with a bloody effigy of then-President Donald Trump in 2017. 

She revealed the suicide attempt and cancer diagnosis on Monday during an interview with ABC News - footage of which was first obtained by DailyMail.com. 

Griffin says she is now sober and eager to survive the health scare.

'The irony is not lost on me that, a little over a year ago, all I wanted to do was die. And now, all I wanna do is live,' she said.   

She said she started taking Provigil, an amphetamine similar to Adderall, after it was prescribed to her by a doctor.

Griffin said she was then prescribed Ambien to help her sleep as well as painkillers for other injuries.

'I started thinking about suicide more and more as I got into the pill addiction, and it became almost an obsessive thought. I started really convincing myself it was a good decision,' Griffin said. 'I got my living revocable trust in order. I had all my ducks in a row. I wrote the note - the whole thing.' 

The suicide attempt took place in June of last year.

'I really fell in love with [the pills],' she said. 'Then, it was kind of the allure of, 'Oh, I can regulate my energy levels or my moods. Or...I fell on my elbow in my act or something and I can be pain-free or something. And it got out of control very rapidly.'   

In 2017 she posted a video of herself to Instagram where she was holding a mask made to look like the severed, bloody head of Trump.

'I caption this 'there was blood coming out of his eyes, blood coming out of his...wherever,'' she said of the shoot from photographer Tyler Shields. 

Griffin later took down the image, and apologized publicly but later revoked that statement, and now stands by the photo and insists it was free speech. 

At the time, Trump said Griffin 'should be ashamed of herself', calling the stunt 'sick' and claiming that his young son Barron was 'having a hard time with this'.

Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of Bill and Hillary Clinton, called it 'vile and wrong' and said it was 'never funny to joke about killing a president'.

Griffin was dropped from CNN's New Year's Eve show and co-host Cooper said the photo was 'clearly disgusting and completely inappropriate'.

She had been the co-host of CNN's New Year's Eve broadcast for 10 years before she was fired in the aftermath of the photo. 

Griffin told ABC News that she was particularly hurt by Cooper's refusal to support her and reach out to her in the aftermath of the controversy.

'The Anderson Cooper situation was just difficult because I just loved him. I just adored him. So that one hurt,' she said. 'I think that emotionally, that was the most painful, to have so many friends that, to this day, haven't called.' 

Griffin said that she was traumatized by the fallout from the Trump effigy photo. She said she began receiving death threats. 

She also says that some people began to threaten her family, including those who were being treated for cancer at the time.

'I mean, legit death threats with everything, from online, which is the Google pictures of the house, the address. I mean, folks showed up to my husband's parents' house,' she said.  'They tracked my sister down when she was dying of cancer in the hospital and called her...I picked up the call and heard it myself because I happened to be visiting her.' 

Even though she began touring as a comedian last year after losing several gigs as a result of the controversy, Griffin now says that she was still suffering on the inside. 

'I thought, 'Well, I don't even drink… Big deal, I take a couple pills now and again, who doesn't?'' she said. 'Also, my age was a big part of it. I mean, who bottoms out and tries to take their life at 59? It's almost a joke, right, and by the way, someday, this will all be comedy. 

'Trust me… I was laughing to stay alive. And what I found is I felt like if I can't make others laugh, then there's no purpose for me to live. There's no reason for me to live.' 

That year, Griffin embarked on a 'Laugh Your Head Off' tour that included sold-out shows in New Zealand.

During her first show in Auckland, a spectator who called himself a 'Trumper' threw a glass bottle at her head. Griffin says she later saw that same person being interviewed on television.

As the tour went on, her mental and emotional state kept deteriorating.

'I lost a ton of weight... I wasn't even aware of...not being able to keep food down because I was dealing with so many things,' she said. 'Yet, I had such a drive to get back on stage and show that I couldn't be taken down. It was a really tough time.

'It was one of those times where I was on a mission and I was gonna get through it. And it was a very, very gratifying, but very difficult tour.'

As she kept spiraling downward, she found solace in pills. But it was short-lived. That's when she began to contemplate suicide.

'Those were very real moments, obviously...when I'm breaking down on the plane, I was really convinced that...somebody was gonna harm me or...a mob [was] waiting in this environment, or something like that,' Griffin said.

'I just felt there was impending doom.'

Griffin added: 'I was already starting to think ... it was time for me to go.

'And I was certainly being told by an awful lotta people it's time for me to go.' 

Griffin said she witnessed loved ones suffer from alcoholism during her upbringing in an Irish Catholic family.

'It really wasn't until later in life that folks from that generation started kind of talking about alcoholism and what it meant,' she said. 'I still think that if I would've taken a drink, I think I would have become an alcoholic very quickly.'

Griffin also said that she was sexually abused by her late brother.

After her suicide attempt, Griffin's husband and her doctor placed her on psychiatric hold.

She then started to work with two clinicians to begin her recovery.

A turning point for Griffin came after she began attending Alcoholics

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