Chris Mortensen was told he looks good.
“As long as you can see me, things are good,” Mortensen replied.
Mortensen is learning being a cancer survivor is a lifetime job, beating stage 4 throat cancer last year only to soon discover it had spread to his lungs. And now the ESPN NFL reporter is seeing that the battle will never end.
Mortensen was diagnosed in early January 2016, underwent chemotherapy that “virtually reduced [the cancer] to zero detection” in August of that year. By November, he said, doctors had discovered a “recurrence of the cancer that has metastasized to my lungs.”
On his new treatment — immunotherapy — “Every time they scan me [the cancer modules] have either reduced in size, disappeared or stabilized.”
“That’s been good news,” Mortensen said. “I’ve asked how long does this go on. And they said maybe forever.”
Mortensen opened up about his life post-diagnosis on Peter King’s MMQB podcast, charting the hardship of the past 21 months of his life.
The longtime ESPNer had an earache and his tongue felt heavy, symptoms he ignored until he spit up blood before a “Monday Night Football” halftime appearance.
“Chris, we’re going to do a biopsy right now,” his doctor told him, “but I can tell you what this is: You’ve got stage 4 throat cancer. Which included the throat and base of the tongue.”
Mortensen was shocked. His wife, Micki, was worse.
“Hon, all I can tell you is I have stage 4 throat cancer. … She literally crumpled to the floor,” Mortensen told her at their Arkansas home. “Then ran to the back and started screaming, ‘No God, no God.'”
“‘… Don’t worry, I’m not gonna die, I’m not gonna die. We’re gonna get through this,'” Mortensen told her. “… She just was sobbing and crying and still in rough shape.”
Mortensen, 65, took a leave from ESPN as chemo began, his weight dropping and, on a few occasions, his hopes. The optimist tried putting on a strong face for his loved ones at all times, but admitted the facade couldn’t be permanently etched. He had “a pity party” twice in July 2016, he said, “when I wondered if I would be alive in two to four months,” and was reliant on a feeding tube that Micki would change.
But Mortensen survived the chemo that ended in May 2016. And it worked. He’s survived the spread. And his current treatment is working. He’s back to work, if not as active as he once was, but he’s not back to who he was before. He said he’ll never be that person again.
“I think there are times they just say, you can’t believe, when you look in the mirror, I can’t recognize myself,” Mortensen said. “That doesn’t look like me. I’d take a shower and there’s just blood coming out of my nose gently. You’ll never be the same — and in some ways, you’ll never be the same for good reasons. … You learn how to live each day with a great attitude.”