Catholic comedian and former Sirius radio-show host Jennifer Fulwiler took to social media earlier in the week to share the devastating news that her oldest daughter, Lane, has been diagnosed with a brain tumor. Writing on X, she said:

“We need prayers. My daughter has been in the ICU, facing a very serious diagnosis. As I type this, she is heading in for a 10-hour brain surgery involving four neurosurgeons. I shared more details about the situation on my podcast. Please pray for her.”

The comic, who is in the midst of her first national comedy tour, shared more details about her child on her podcast, The Jen Fulwiler Show, explaining:

“My oldest daughter, sophomore in college, was just diagnosed with a brain tumor. This is all happening very quickly. Just got the diagnosis 48 hours ago.”

Fulwiler said it all started when Lane was complaining of discomfort.

“She was just having headaches, and they did some quick scans to rule things out. And the headaches did indeed turn out to be a brain tumor.”

The diagnosis led to brain surgery that ended up lasting nearly 12 hours, requiring a team of neurosurgeons.

Tuesday morning, Fulwiler updated her fans by saying that the ordeal was far from over.

“Lane was in surgery from 7:45 AM - 6 PM. She will be in ICU for at least a week. We don’t know what type of tumor this is but it’s unlikely that we’re done here. Thank you so, so much for your prayers.”

On the podcast, Fulwiler noted that the family is asking for a specific intercession, one that is near and dear to her family.

“We are asking for the prayers of Our Lady of Champion, which is also known as Our Lady of Good Help. It is the only approved Marian apparition in the United States.”

In ever-candid fashion even in the midst of calamity, Fulwiler painted a picture of how she is grappling with this life-changing news: “Not great.”

“I’m still in shock, but I would describe my reaction as medieval; a lot of superstition; a lot of scrupulosity. At one point, I had myself convinced that the problem here was [me] — when we were going in for the scan, I was on the phone with a friend and I said, ‘This scan is not going to show anything, such a waste of time; it’s obviously going to come back clear,’ and in one of my mental breakdowns, superstitious spirals, I thought, ‘Well, that’s what did it. I jinxed it.’”

“In times of stress, I do kind of default to medieval, peasant spirituality, and I am working on getting out of that,” Fulwiler admitted.

“Luckily I know many people who are better at faith than I am,” she continued. “I’ve got many priests in my phone and just talked to one of them on the phone, a Dominican priest, Father Joseph-Anthony Kress, a dear friend of mine. And he’s been giving me good counsel to help me not spiral.”

Fulwiler said they covered every spiritual precaution, given the gravity of the situation, saying on her podcast, “We did do the anointing of the sick. We called in a priest to the ICU; and that was wonderful, of course.”

Fulwiler let her fans know that, for the time being, her podcast and comedy shows are up in the air, as she tends to her dear daughter and asks for everyone to pray. But she also said that “comedy is the way that I work out the hard things, and the dark things and the scary things, and for that reason, looking at only [the situation] through the lens of what is best for my daughter, and my family, and for me, I would like to keep doing the podcast and the shows as much as possible.”

Her daughter is getting the very best care, Fulwiler also said, because of a dear family friend who helped them immensely. Fulwiler and her husband met this dear friend named Warren randomly at a drive-through years before they converted to Catholicism.

Fulwiler left this message for her fans, before going back to caring for her precious daughter:

“I just want to leave with the message that God is always active in your life. He’s always looking out for you. God is still with you, and still loves you, and doing incredible things in your life that you won’t see for years to come. Keep us in your prayers. and I will update you guys when I can.”

Our Lady of Champion, pray for Lane and all the Fulwilers!