Morgan Wade Offers Health Journey Update with Support from Kyle Richards: "Changed My Life" - suong

It’s been just over three weeks since country singer Morgan Wade underwent a preventative double mastectomy.

“I’m finally able to put a hoodie on!” she tells PEOPLE. “That’s nice because it was button-up shirts and anything that could zip for a minute.”

Wade, 29, has also had to deal with forced downtime post-surgery, which she admits hasn't been easy for someone so active and physically fit. But she knows it’s worth it: Having the procedure means she can live the rest of her life knowing she has no risk of breast cancer, which runs in her family.

The “Psychopath” singer says she lost both her grandmother and great-aunt to pancreatic cancer, and had an aunt who was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 30. After a cousin tested positive for the RAD51D gene mutation, which puts carriers at a 20 to 40 percent lifetime risk of breast cancer, according to the Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered advocacy group, Wade’s mom Robin encouraged the star to go for the test.

Wade tested positive, and soon after she decided to move forward with the removal of her breasts. On Nov. 18, she underwent the four-hour surgery, which included not only the double mastectomy, but reconstructive surgery as well.

“I would rather have done all this and never know if I was going to get breast cancer or not,” she says. “I would’ve rather done this and have that peace of mind. Life is short, life is precious, and I’m grateful for the advances with science that we have the knowledge to be able to go and take care of these things.”

Though Wade says she knew exactly what she was getting herself into, she started getting more nervous as the surgery date approached.

“I didn’t really process it. But the night before, I started to get kind of anxious about it, and I was like, ‘I don't know that I want to do this,’” she recalls. “I knew I needed to do it, but there’s always that little bit of fear in the back of your mind.”

The singer says she leaned on her mom, who had previously undergone the same surgery, to help ease her anxieties. She also woke up at 3 a.m. to squeeze in a cup of black coffee and one last workout before heading to the surgery center.

It was close friend and Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kyle Richards who helped put the surgery in motion, as she connected the singer to Mission Plasticos, a nonprofit dedicated to providing no-cost reconstructive surgical care to people who are uninsured or underinsured. Through Mission Plasticos, she found Dr. Heather MacDonald, who performed the mastectomy, and Dr. Karen Leong, who put in implants immediately after during reconstructive surgery.

Richards, 54, became involved in the organization several years ago after losing her mother Kathleen to breast cancer in 2002.

“I’ve been involved with Mission Plasticos for years, and greatly admire the work they do for women across the country,” Richards says. “Breast cancer has impacted my family, and I understand how overwhelming it can be to navigate the healthcare system, the procedures it can entail, the emotional and physical ramifications it can have. When Morgan told me what she was dealing with in terms of her health, I knew Mission Plasticos would be an incredible resource.” 

Susan Williamson, the nonprofit’s executive director, says a surgery like Wade’s could cost, on average, about $100,000 without financial assistance.

“None of these things are accessible, and it’s strange, and I don’t understand it, and it should be,” says Williamson. “The mastectomy Morgan had, it’s preventative. Now she won’t get cancer, and it won’t cost the insurance company hundreds of thousands of dollars for cancer treatment, surgeries and chemo and radiation.”

Wade left the hospital the same day as her procedure. She says the drainage tubes attached to her body afterward were the “absolute worst” part, but that during her lowest moments, she thought of her aunt who had been through the same surgery while also dealing with chemotherapy and radiation.

And though she’s made it through the toughest of the pain, she’s still adjusting to her new look, which currently does not include nipples (She has the option of getting 3D nipples or tattooing nipples onto her implants down the line if she so chooses).

“Everything was gone. That was probably the weirdest part for me. I didn’t think I would care, but then when you go and you look in the mirror at yourself, it was just a lot to take in,” she says. “I’m still processing how different my body looks in that regard. As tough as it is to look in the mirror right now for me… [the scars will] heal up and it’ll be good. If you would’ve asked me a day after I did this, I would’ve been like, ‘Screw all of you. Why the hell did I do this?’ But now it’s helped me see things way differently.”

As she recovers, Wade has binge-watched all of Schitt’s Creek, as well as the Netflix series Escaping Twin Flames and Max’s Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God. She’s continued to write music during what she says has been a self-reflective period, and has finished recording what will be her third album, which she plans to release next year (Her second, Psychopath, came out in August).

She’s made peace with her decision, and remains committed to spreading the word and breaking the stigma on mastectomies.

“For a while, it seemed like the word mastectomy was creepy or weird. It’s not something you want to talk about like, ‘I have to go have my breasts removed,’” she says. “We have to talk about that stuff more. The pain really is temporary. It’s so worth it, taking control of your health.”