Nearly two years ago, Dwayne Wade, a revered figure in the NBA Hall of Fame, was diagnosed with kidney cancer. Recently, he has opened up about the early signs he unfortunately overlooked before the shocking diagnosis.
At the age of 41, the iconic Miami Heat player was informed he had stage one cancer. This revelation came after he had gone for a check-up at 40, prompted by his father’s prostate cancer diagnosis.
Standing at 6ft4in, the former shooting guard recounted how, during his initial medical visit, he unknowingly dismissed symptoms that indicated kidney cancer.
“I talked about just having a slow stream, like sometimes when I would go to the bathroom, my urine would come out little slow,” he shared with Today.
“I had some cramps, some pain, a little bit at times in my stomach that I did not understand,” he mentioned further.
Wade did not give these symptoms much thought, but eventually decided to get a comprehensive check-up for peace of mind.
During an MRI scan, doctors identified something unusual on his kidney. This was unexpected for Wade, who had initially sought examination for his stomach and prostate.
“Immediately they try to say, ‘Well, we don’t know if it’s cancerous, but it’s something on there, and you’re a young man, and we just want to make sure that, you obviously are able to live this healthy lifestyle,'” said Wade.
Processing the news, Wade faced the reality of potential kidney surgery, knowing it felt significantly more serious than previous surgeries on his knees and shoulder.
His doctor recommended removing what appeared to be a lesion as a preventive step.
“[My doctor said] in the next five or 10 years, if this is cancer, [it can] not only spread through your kidneys, but it [can] also spread through your lungs and eventually to your brain,” he relayed to the publication.
“That’s when I knew that was, like, really serious.”
In December 2023, 15 months ago, he underwent surgery, which confirmed the lesion was indeed cancerous.
“Thank God that we caught it early,” Wade expressed to the outlet. “This wasn’t something that was able to grow. It was about 3 centimeters on my kidney.”
Following his experience, Wade reflected on how it changed his outlook on life.
“I needed to sit down and think about my life, think about where I was and where I wanted to go, what was important, what wasn’t important, and it set me down,” he said.
“I spent a lot of time writing in my journal, spent a lot of time thinking about what I want the next 40 years or so to look like and feel like, and so it’s a really important time in my life at the same time.”