Michael Douglas, who has battled back from stage 4 throat cancer, talked for the first time about his harrowing brush with the deadly disease in a heartfelt conversation with friend and “30 Rock” star Alec Baldwin.
As it turned out, Douglas, 67, knew more about the seriousness of his disease than his own doctors.
After being told that his persistent soar throat was nothing more infection and being prescribed antibiotics he sought out a specialist who gave him the grim news.
“I found an ear, nose and throat doctor in Montreal. He literally opened my mouth and took a tongue impression, and I’ll never forget the moment when he looked up at me and looked back down, and I knew,” he told Bladwin during the interview on his WNYC podcast.
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Two days later, a biopsy confirmed that he was suffering from a walnut-sized tumor at the base of his tongue. It was Stage IV, the most advanced stage of the cancer.
What irked Douglas the most at the point was the fact that he had been complaining about his throat for more than eight months, but didn’t getting a diagnosis until August 2010.
“I thought maybe it was from tension, from the part where you haven’t placed your voice and how you are swallowing your words and you are speaking from the back of your throat,” he said.
Douglas, who is a drinker and a life-long smoker, was also filming “Wall Street Never Sleeps,” at the time.
“I went away from the summer and I came back and I said (to his GP) ‘Listen something is going on here,’” he recounted.
In August, he appeared on the David Letterman show and attributed the cancer to smoking and drinking.
Douglas immediately underwent eight weeks of radiation and chemotherapy treatment before he was given a clean bill of health.
The Oscar-winning star’s weight has reportedly fallen to 139 pounds from a strapping 175 pounds before treatment, and there were reports that the disease was getting the better of him, which proved to be untrue.
Earlier detection, however, could have made his life a lot easier, he said.
“The reality is that if I had been checked back in Jan for head and neck cancer this could have all happened a lot early and the thing with cancer is you want to get it as early as you can,” he explained.
Since his treatment, Douglas said he has been spending more time with his wife Catherine Zeta-Jones, 41, son Dylan, 10, and daughter Carys, 7.
Check out the interview audio below.
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