Sick Of It All Vocalist Lou Koller Shares Hopeful Update Ahead of Surgery
Good news in the ongoing story of Sick Of It All frontman Lou Koller, who announced back in June that he had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer that extends into his stomach. Well, Koller gave an update yesterday in a video posted to Instagram (that was transcribed by Blabbermouth) and things are looking positive as he heads into surgery at some point today:
“Hey, everybody. What’s up? It’s Lou. Real quick update. I’m heading in for my surgery tomorrow, which is great. The chemo, besides messing me up and kicking my ass, actually did its job. The tumor is said to be dead flesh. That’s what the nurse said. I don’t know what it means, but I guess it’s good. The cancer has not spread. They will be cutting out the infected area tomorrow. So it should be about an eight-hour operation. What do I care? I’m gonna be sleeping through the whole thing. And hopefully I see you all guys afterwards. It might be a little while before an update, depending on how well I feel and all that stuff. All right. But thank you again for all your support, prayers, well wishes, the gifts, the financial support, as always. Thank you, and hope you’re all doing good, and I’ll let you know how it goes. See ya.”
While I’m admittedly not a medical expert of any sort, I have a little bit of experience with cancer having lost both my parents to it, and I have to admit that I was concerned at the initial reports that Koller’s cancer was in both his esophagus and his stomach. Once cancer starts spreading from the point of origin to other organs, it becomes more difficult to treat. From Koller’s phrasing that the cancer has not spread, it sounds like it hasn’t gone beyond his esophagus and stomach, which is really good to hear.
That still doesn’t mean that Koller is out of the woods, but it certainly sounds far from hopeless based on what he said in his update. Meanwhile, the GoFundMe that was originally set up to raise money for Koller’s medical expenses has exceeded its goal by over $100,000 and continues to accept donations. The hardcore community will be thinking of Koller a lot today, and MetalSucks wishes him all the luck in the world.
