Dave Coulier, the actor best known for his time on the legendary sitcom Full House, has announced that he has been diagnosed with stage 3 non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
In a statement to People, Coulier said that he was diagnosed in October after an upper respiratory infection he contracted caused swelling in his lymph nodes. After going to get PET and CT scans for the enlarged lymph nodes, Coulier was given the diagnosis.
“Three days later, my doctors called me back and they said, ‘We wish we had better news for you, but you have non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and it’s called B cell and it’s very aggressive,’” Coulier said. “I went from, I got a little bit of a head cold to I have cancer, and it was pretty overwhelming. This has been a really fast roller coaster ride of a journey.”
Coulier staying optimistic, and has already begun treatment
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma occurs when white blood cells called lymphocytes grow abnormally and form growths in the body. The type that Coulier has, known as B cell lymphoma, is considered rare, and the actor said he and his wife Melissa Bring immediately began working on how to best combat it after the diagnosis.
“We all kind of put our heads together and said, ‘Okay, where are we going?’ And they had a very specific plan for how they were going to treat this,” Coulier said. “At that point, my chances of curable went from something low to 90% range. And so that was a great day.”
Coulier said he’s already begun chemotherapy and has also shaved his head as a “preemptive strike” of sorts. He also said that he’s choosing to keep a positive outlook on things as he continues to undergo treatment and has been inspired by the women in his family, some of whom he’s already lost to various cancers.
“I saw what those women in my family went through, and I thought to myself, ‘If I can be just 1/10th of a percent as strong as they were, then I’m going to be just fine. My sister was a registered nurse, and so she’s seen this from different optics than I have,” said Coulier. “She’s been so supportive and she’s funny. So we’re making jokes about this. One of my jokes is in four short weeks I’ve gone from a Virgo to a Cancer. I’m a huge hockey fan. So when they said ‘You’ve got NHL,’ I thought, ‘I finally made it to the NHL.’
“When I first got the news, I was stunned, of course, because I didn’t expect it, and then reality settled in and I found myself remarkably calm with whatever the outcome was going to be,” he says. “I don’t know how to explain it, but there was an inner calm about all of it, and I think that that’s part of what I’ve seen with the women in my family go through. They really instilled that in me and inspired me in a way because they were magnificent going through what they went through, and I just thought, ‘I’m okay with this too.’ I’ve had an incredible life on a journey with incredible people around me and I’m okay. It does change perspective for sure.”
In a statement provided to ComingSoon from Andy Kolb, M.D., President & Chief Executive Officer of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society — the largest blood cancer advocacy organization in the world — Kolb stresses the importance of visiting doctors when things don’t feel right, and that, thanks to new treatments and constantly advancing therapies, patients are able to combat the illness even better.
“Dave’s story highlights the importance of why people need to listen to their bodies and see a doctor when something is not right,” said Kolb. “Most signs and symptoms of non-Hodgkin lymphoma are associated with many other, less serious diseases. LLS routinely receives calls from patients who were unaware that their symptoms, whether it was persistent fatigue or swelling in a lymph node, were precursors to a blood cancer diagnosis. Thanks to new treatments, such as targeted therapies, many patients are living longer than ever before.”
(Source: People)
