65-year-old actor Dave Coulier has announced that he was diagnosed with cancer. Specifically, he was diagnosed with stage 3 non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Coulier made the announcement in an episode of his podcast Full House Rewind and elaborated in an interview with People that was published on Wednesday.
Active in the entertainment industry since 1979, Coulier rose to prominence as a stand-up comedian, impressionist, and as a star in the ensemble cast of Full House. Decades later, he reprised his role as Joey Gladstone in the Netflix sequel series, Fuller House, and has since kept ’90s nostalgia fans engaged through his rewatch podcast, which he began hosting last year.
Dave Coulier reveals his stage 3 cancer diagnosis
Speaking with People, Coulier shared that he was officially diagnosed with cancer back in October. He first experienced lymph node swelling triggered by an upper respiratory infection. In fact, one area swelled so severely it reached the size of a golf ball. That’s when his doctor pushed for a biopsy, as well as PET and CT scans.
“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,'” he further revealed. “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.”
The path from here
There was some good news to be had: a bright spot in his bone marrow test came up negative. After receiving his cancer diagnosis, Coulier, along with his wife Melissa Bring, brainstormed with friends to tackle this sobering news “head-on.”
“We all kind of put our heads together and said, ‘Okay, where are we going?'” he elaborated. “And they had a very specific plan for how they were going to treat this. At that point, my chances of curable went from something low to 90% range. And so that was a great day.”
By two weeks, Coulier began chemotherapy. He appeared on his podcast episode with a shaved head, donning a hat. His presentation and his discussion during that episode were transparent, concerning his health.
“I started the podcast wearing a hat, and I said, I’ve always been a man of many hats, but this hat has special significance because a couple of weeks ago, I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma,” Coulier recounted. “That was really a conscious decision of, I’m going to meet this head-on, and I want people to know it’s my life. I’m not going to try and hide anything. I would rather talk about it and open the discussion and inspire people.”
