Musician Demon Kakka appeared on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi) on March 7th. He talked about the two serious illnesses he suffered last year.
Last spring, when I had a slightly detailed health check, something suspicious was found in a place that should not be checked. It was cancer. "Nowadays, one in two Japanese people will get cancer, so I just thought, oh, it's my turn." Fortunately, it was discovered early and was very mild.
I decided to undergo cancer treatment, and during the examination, a disease of the aorta was found. If left untreated, the walls of the blood vessels would thin and it was unclear when they would burst. "What would happen if it burst?" "You would die instantly," the doctor told me.
Even if cancer treatment is delayed a little, it will not progress as much, but since you do not know when the aorta will rupture, it is better to treat it as soon as possible. Since they were found at almost the same time, it was difficult to decide the order. In the end, the cancer treatment was given first. No one will know for sure if that decision was correct, but "I think that order was good for me."
The doctor explained that during the aortic surgery, a lot of nerves are cut, so in one or two cases out of tens or hundreds of thousands, there is a chance of losing one's voice. "What will you do?" he asked, but I replied, "Even if they tell me what to do, if I have to do it or I'll die, I have no choice but to do it even if I lose my voice. Fortunately, I can still speak now." Both problems were discovered early and the treatment was done without draining my strength, so I was able to return to the stage in about two months.
