Melissa Coulier/Parade
Dave Coulier is gracing the cover of Parade magazine!
In the issue, Coulier opened up about his cancer battle and the daily struggles he faces.
Coulier completed his sixth round of chemotherapy in February.
Opening up on the emotional and physical toll of the chemotherapy, Coulier shared, “The symptoms were getting worse and worse with each treatment. So neuropathy, which I hadn’t experienced before, started to increase. Nausea started to increase. Dizziness started to increase. They call it chemo brain, where you’re a bit foggy — that started to increase. My days of being able to get up and walk around and be active started to decrease.
“Some days, I just didn’t want to do anything,” Dave admitted. “Though I wanted to move around and go out and, you know, work around the house, I just couldn’t. There was so much cancer-related fatigue that got progressively worse and worse and worse, and I thought, ‘Wow, this is how it’s going to go.’”
Coulier did the cover interview just after a hospitalization.
Dave was going through his sixth round of chemotherapy when he started feeling “pretty sick.”
He went on, “I didn’t know that I had caught a virus. I was in bed for about 10 days just trying to figure out, ‘Do I have a cold? Am I just feeling the ramifications of this cumulative effect of the chemo? What is going on?’”
While he was hospitalized, deposits were found at the bottom of his lungs.
He explained, “There’s a thing called [ground-glass opacity (GGO)]. On a scan, in your lungs it looks like particles of glass.”
Dave’s wife Melissa was grateful that they went for the checkup, since doctors thought they “might not have been able to turn this around.”
Melissa has been by Dave’s side through his cancer battle.
He said, “Seeing my wife exhausted on those days when I’m like, ‘Can you get me some water?’ and ‘I haven’t taken my pills yet’… She’s been running ragged helping me. That’s the picture that will stay with me — how this affects your family members. People who go through this know exactly what I’m talking about.”
Due to his cancer, Coulier cut certain foods out of his diet, like sushi and dessert.
He commented, “I gave up a lot of fun foods. I love sushi, so I couldn’t have any raw fish because of the bacteria levels that can exist, and my body wouldn’t be able to fight it off. I was a big dessert guy. I always celebrated. If we’re going out to dinner, I’m having dessert because we’re out: ‘This is special.’
“I’m a firm believer that what you put into your body is exactly what you’ll get back,” Coulier stressed. “So I’ve completely cut out all sugar. Because of my age and because I still like to play ice hockey, I had a lot of inflammation, and once I stopped sugar, it was gone in a matter of seven days.”
Despite everything that he’s been through, Coulier maintains a “positive” attitude. He noted, “Especially because I’m in a position where I can inspire others. A negative attitude doesn’t inspire anybody. Positivity, though, can take you a long way.
“Maybe I’ve been blessed in some strange way,” he went on. “I know it sounds out there a little bit, but maybe I’ve been, you know, given this torch, and a magic wand waved itself over me and said, ‘Dave, you can do something here.’”
