Former Senator Norm Coleman Discusses Battle With Cancer
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Former U.S. Senator Norm Coleman is speaking out about his battle with throat cancer and the remarkable progress he is making as part of a clinical trial at the Mayo Clinic.
Since his bruising 2008 re-election loss to Al Franken, Coleman has focused on a successful international legal career and his work for two political action committees that help raise money for Republican candidates.
Coleman says cancer has changed his perspective on everything, including politics.
At first, Coleman didn't think it was much.
"You're laying in bed at night and there's just something in the back of your throat," he said.
A doctor told him he likely had an infection, but two weeks later he found a lump.
"Once I got a lump in my neck, then all of the sudden I started to get a little nervous," Coleman said.
This time doctors did a biopsy. Two hours later, the doctor called.
"And she told me -- she said, "It's cancer, and we'll figure this out,'" Coleman said. "It was pretty devastating, actually. Really devastating."
He remembers the car ride home, wondering how he would tell Lori -- his wife of 34 years.
"I'm thinking a thousand different things -- 'Am I going to die ?'" Coleman said. "Fear at its maximum. Not just about myself, because you start thinking about your family and you start thinking about your kids. Thinking about my cabin that I have a mortgage on, and can I pay that off quickly before I die?"
When his wife heard, she told him she wished things had been the other way around.
"She said, 'I wish I had it,' and I said, 'No Lori, I want it." Coleman said.
Later at the Mayo Clinic, the senator and his family got good news -- the cancer had not spread. Surgery in late October was successful and he was put in a clinical trail.
"I had one half the radiation that two week period, and one fifth the chemo," Coleman said. "I had very few side effects from chemo. Almost none."
The senator's updates on Facebook and Twitter brought thousands of wishes of support. Even former rivals like Sen. Al Franken reached out.
"Maybe that's Minnesota, maybe that's something about who we are," Coleman said. "I don't know if it happens in the rest of the country."
It's a perspective that has changed him.
"My eyes have been open," he said. "I now see things I didn't see before."
And he's been offering this advice to anyone who will listen.
"If you see something or feel something that just doesn't seem right, check it out," Coleman said. "The quicker you check it out the better your chance of success, of survival."
Coleman says he will know if he is cancer free on March 7th when he goes to the Mayo Clinic for final tests.