In an interview with ”The Today Show”, actor and comedian Dave Coulier revealed he has Stage 3 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Coulier, who is best known for his role as Joey in the legendary hit sitcom “Full House” and later “Fuller House,” talked about the first symptom he experienced before receiving ahis diagnosis.
As the actor told Today, he had come down with a cold a little over a month ago. The lymph nodes in his groin swelled to a golf-ball size lump.
According to Coulier, he had experienced swollen lymph nodes in his neck and arm pits when he was sick before. But nothing quite like this.
“It swelled up immediately,” the 65-year-old told Today. “I thought, ‘Wow, I’m either really sick, or my body’s really reacting to something.’”
After paying his doctor a visit, “they said, ‘Yeah, we need to take a serious look at this.’ And so, we did blood tests. Blood tests came back great. My EKG, everything great. Heart, everything perfect.”
However, after undergoing a myriad of tests, his doctors’s removed and biopsied the swollen lymph node just to be sure. That when doctors called Coulier to give him the news.
“(My doctors) said, ‘Hey, we wish we had better news, but you have non-Hodgkin lymphoma, B-cell lymphoma,’” Coulier shared. “It was a shock.”
“The first thing I said to them was, ‘Wait a minute — cancer?’ (I was) feeling like I got punched in the stomach because it never happens to you. You always hear about it happening to someone else.”
Now, as he begins his treatmentfight, Coulier said he’s determined to keep his sense of humor through it all.
“My joke is that in four short weeks I’ve gone from a Virgo to a Cancer. I’ve tried to retain a sense of reality but also a sense of humor about it.”
According to the Mayo Clinic, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is a type of blood “cancer that begins in your lymphatic system, which is part of the body’s germ-fighting immune system.”
Specifically, Coulier was diagnosed with B-cell lymphoma.
“B cells are a type of lymphocyte that fights infection by producing antibodies to neutralize foreign invaders. Most non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma arises from B cells,” Mayo Clinic reports.
Now, Coulier is leaning on his wife, Melissa Coulier, for support.
After learning about her husband’s diagnosis, Melissa Coulier “organized (his) entire life, from nutrition to the doctor’s appointments to the pills.”
“She’s got stuff color-coded,” he said of his wife. “It’s pretty great.”
Coulier said felt this wave of acceptance come over him while they waited to learn whichwatch stage the cancer was in.
“I told Melissa I don’t know why, but I (am) OK with whatever the news (is) going to be no matter how devastating. … I can’t explain where that came from. I’ve had an incredible life. I’ve had the most amazing people in my life. This has been an extraordinary journey, and I’m OK if this is the end of the journey.”
After being diagnosed Stage 3, Coulier said his doctors gave him a “curability rate” of “upwards of 90%.”
“It’s been a bit of a roller coaster. There (are) days where I feel unbelievable,” he told Today. “Then there’s other days where … I’m just going to lay down and let this be what it’s going to be.”