Edward James Olmos speaks publicly for the first time about his throat cancer diagnosis.
The 76-year-old actress chatted with Mando Fresko on television. Mando and Friends “This is the first time I’m going to go out and say this in public but I had throat cancer,” he said on the podcast this week.
Explaining that his last radiation treatment was at the end of last year, Olmos said, “I just finished. December 20 was my last radiation. I finished my chemotherapy a week ago and [for] I had months of radiation and chemotherapy because it attacked my throat.”
“I’m still here [on my throat] A lump where my lymph nodes were, they burned that area because they hit it with radiation,” he added.
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Continuing his candid conversation, Olmos remembered that his doctors had told him they weren’t sure how his voice would sound after cancer treatment.
“Doctors used to say — I had five doctors — right before we started, the doctors would say, ‘There’s only one thing we have to tell you, we don’t know how you’re going to sound,'” he said. “What did I say?!’ ”
Olmost later explained in more detail about his treatment, “We pull your vocal cords, we pull your throat; where you eat, where you swallow, where you talk, where you breathe, everything goes through here.”
“That’s why we shoot. And it becomes the hardest place to shoot and use radiation and chemotherapy,” said the Academy Award-winning star.
This selena Star said the cancer “takes a lot out of her” and detailed that she’s lost 55 pounds and all of her muscle, despite saying she’s been working on regaining her strength for the past four months.
“I was in good shape – and I still am,” he said. “I swim at least a mile a day, sometimes two miles a day. Every day, seven days a week. Then I row and do weight training.
Evaluating his cancer journey, Olmos concluded his words by saying: “There were times when I went into treatments that the body gave up on in months. I didn’t want to eat out of my stomach either. They wanted to insert a tube.” and feed me with food as I cannot swallow. My body needed 2,500 calories each day. That was ridiculous, it was very difficult.”
“It was an experience that changed me, it was an understanding of how wonderful life is,” he added. “I had some experiences that brought me closer to death, but this was close.”