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Rush Opens Up About His Status: ‘Every Day I Wake Up And The First Thing I Do Is Thank God That I Did’

   DailyWire.com
Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, who recently announced he's suffering from lung cancer, second right, reacts as he is awarded with the Presidential Medal of Freedom during a State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020.
Photo by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

 

On Tuesday, iconic radio show host rush Limbaugh opened up about his status as he fights advanced lung cancer, acknowledging that the current wave of treatment he is experiencing is “kicking my a**. For the last seven days, I have been virtually worthless, virtually useless.” But in typically Limbaughesque fashion, he refused to be daunted by his struggles, saying, “Every day I wake up and the first thing I do is thank God that I did.”

Limbaugh began by telling his vast audience that he had not updated them about his condition, while minimizing his own situation, saying, “These are extremely challenging times for me medically. Nothing that millions of you haven’t gone through or aren’t going through.” He continued, “And those of you who have or those of you who are going through it, you understand it, and so it’s… The temptation here is to start divulging a lot of stuff, and I’m not gonna do that, because I vowed not to be a cancer patient on the radio. I vowed to shield as much of that from the daily program as I can. I guess… I’m in the third wave of treatment now.”

Limbaugh admitted, “There have been many cycles, but this is the third wave, and this current wave, I have to tell you, is kicking my a**. For the last seven days, I have been virtually worthless, virtually useless. I haven’t left the house. I haven’t done much of anything except just try to rest and relax. All of this was told to me; it was gonna be a factor.”

Limbaugh acknowledged, “Nothing is happening that was not told me to me. Nothing I haven’t been warned about … It’s the cost. It’s the price that you pay if you make the decision to go ahead and do treatment to try to prolong your life. I’m doing extremely well, all things considered, the fact that I’m even here today.”

Limbaugh said gratefully, “You know, every day… Every day I wake up and the first thing I do is thank God that I did. It is… Just waking up is a blessing. I know many of you are praying daily and nightly. I happen to believe that they work. I believe that they are sustaining me, and I pray for the energy to be able to do this. But I have to be… Folks, I have to be honest.”

Limbaugh spoke about how much his show takes out of him, asserting, “I didn’t realize until I got sick… I honestly didn’t. You’re gonna think this is strange. I didn’t realize how much physical and mental energy doing these three hours — the way I do them, with no guests — and, you know, I don’t do anything to give myself a break during the three hours to take, not even that many phone calls on a normal basis.” He added, “My heart rate skyrockets during these three hours. My caloric burn is the highest of the day during these three hours, and the mental aspect of it — which, to me, another name for it is performance pressure.”

He said, “I’m aware of my energy limitations, and it’s why I said last Thursday that at any moment we may need to start rolling a best-of show here or guest hosts (which are standing by).”

Speaking of what was transpiring medically, he continued:

I guess the most accurate thing to say is that I’ve just now begun Week 2 of this third cycle, and each cycle is three weeks, and the impact on the tumor in these three weeks is not expected to be significant. It’s supposed to take a little longer than that. There has been one particular kind of treatment that works in 97% of patients and did not work in me, and it’s because of a 1% mutation I have that led to my lung cancer in the first place. That 1% mutation is theorized to nullify the second phase of treatment that we tried, throughout…

Even in the first phase where I was in the midst of a clinical trial — stage two of a clinical trial, not even stage three, and these are relatively brand-new drugs. These are the drugs that kept me out of here for two weeks and I didn’t even know where I was. They did a number on the tumor. They shrunk the tumor and related effects. But it would have killed me if I’d have stayed on it.

I would have lost vision in my right eye. I was unable to walk for four days because of muscle swelling and pain from the waist down all the way to the tip of my toes. So I had to get off that stuff. I was on that stuff for I think four weeks, and it bought some time for the next phases to begin, which we are — I am — now in, and I just keep plodding away each and every day.

He offered a lengthy tribute to his wife:

I could not be doing this without Kathryn. I have never experienced anybody so selfless. I marvel at her selflessness. I don’t know how she does it. This is as devastating for her as it is me. But she doesn’t allow herself to get down — or, if she does, I don’t see it. She has this ability to immerse herself in other people’s sadness and disappointment and make them feel better. And not with pep talks. Not with things like that. Just by virtue of her countenance and her being.

She is able to appear optimistic, happy. I mean, bouncy on occasion. No complaining. Which is such a blessing, ’cause I don’t know how to deal with people that complain, since I don’t complain much. But the things that she is doing to ease me through this and to make it as less arduous for me that it can be, I’m blessed.

He concluded, “If I wake up and realize I’m still alive and thank God for it, the next thing is, ‘Okay, can I go to work today?’ If I can, I need to get as many in as possible, because this is one of my primary loves in life — and you in the audience are the reason that this love of my life has been so extraordinarily happy and successful. It would not have happened without you.”

And, of course, one shot of Limbaughesque humor: “And so there is a desire to be here every day to talk about all this rotgut going on out there. By the way, with so much of it, your host is being validated as being 100% correct.”

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