Kim Young-ho, a South Korean actor, has shared a very personal update on his ongoing battle with sarcoma. He says that the disease has come back three times and caused him to have to have several amputations while he continues treatment.
On March 19, the actor was on fellow actor Jo Sang-gu's YouTube channel, where he talked openly about how his condition affected him physically and emotionally.
Kim talked about how his body and daily life have changed a lot since then. He said, "For three years, I lived as one with the sofa. I always had a lot of muscle mass and very little body fat. I thought, 'Surely, since I've been exercising for so long, I won't get belly fat.' But about a month after getting cancer and having surgery, I started gaining weight. That's because they cut off my entire thigh. The disease recurred, so they cut off the inner thigh, and when it recurred a third time, they cut off my side. The cancer has recurred three times,"
He also talked about the side effects of intensive treatments. Kim said, "My stamina dropped because of the chemotherapy and radiation therapy. I thought I needed to build up my strength, so I ran for 20 minutes a day. But then, I kept feeling weak in the evenings, and when I woke up in the morning, my face was completely cracked. I had no immunity. I was afraid to exercise."
He added, "I have the will to live, but the chemotherapy destroyed my entire immune system," as cited by Naver.
READ MORE: Empress Ki" Kim Young Ho Dies In Jin Yi Han's Hands
Kim went on to discuss the many surgeries he had to have after each recurrence. He said about one very painful event, "It recurred after a year, so I had surgery again, and then it recurred a year later, so I had surgery again."
He continued, "Later, I was so angry that I opted for local anesthesia during the surgery. I was curious to see what my cancer looked like. I asked the professor if local anesthesia was possible so he could pull out the tumor and let me see it. But it was incredibly painful. It was a surgery that couldn't be done with local anesthesia. The tumor was tangled up, so it was impossible to pry it apart. I was watching it, and during the surgery, I was in so much pain that I was completely drenched in sweat. Eventually, I saw the cancer. It looked truly disgusting," according to Sports Chosun.
In the middle of the trouble, Kim told his family about a source of hope. He said, "My youngest child started studying cancer because of me." The outlet says that she studied biotechnology in college and is now working on new drugs.
The actor also talked about how his diagnosis affected him emotionally. He said, "When the thought of dying occurred to me, I started to get angry and annoyed, wondering why I had lived so diligently. I suddenly burst into tears and felt a sense of emptiness."
Kim added, "Since I was told I would die with only a week left before surgery, sleeping felt like such a waste. So I couldn't sleep."
Kim ended by talking about how bad his condition was, saying, "There are different grades of cancer. Grade D is okay even if it is stage 3, but Grade A is very bad even if it is stage 1." He continued, "The results were good, but it turned out to be Special Grade A,"
