Over a year after the former Miami Heat player removed a tumor from his kidney, he shared insight for the first time into the life-altering experience.
“I turned 40 years old, I went in and I was like, ‘Doc, I want to know everything about my body,’” Dwyane, 43, recalled of his first-ever full body scan during the Jan. 30 episode of The Way with Dwyane Wade. “Because I did the full body scan and they were able to see my entire body, my entire insides, they were able to see something that was on my kidney.”
He initially went to the doctor for stomach problems, uncomfortable cramping and because his urine was “coming out slow.”
“What I had on my kidney was a cyst, a tumor, but it was nothing that could be biopsied,” Dwyane explained. “There was nothing they could test unless they went in and surgically removed it.”
He recalled, “The doctor was like, ‘You need to have kidney surgery.’”
After getting multiple opinions from other doctors about the diagnosis, Dwyane—who is dad to his and wife Gabrielle Union’s daughter Kaavia, 6, as well as children Zaire, 22, Zaya, 17, and Xavier, 10, from previous relationships and his nephew Dahveion, 21—decided to undergo surgery.
“Being a pretty healthy guy,” he reflected, “I did have cancer. Thank God that I did do the surgery because the tumor was cancerous. I have one kidney and have another that’s 60 percent. They took 40 percent of my kidney to make sure they can get all of the cancer off it.”
Photo by Cindy Ord/MG24/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
For the former NBA superstar, navigating life during that time was an internal battle.
“I think it was the first time that my family, my dad, my kids, they saw me weak,” he said. “That moment was probably the weakest point I’ve ever felt in my life. The moments I was by myself, I was struggling.”
“One thing you never want to do as a man is let your family see you weak,” he continued. “You don’t want to be perceived weak and you don’t want to be seen in your weak moments. In the process of my weakness, I found strength in my family, my friends and my group.”
“Year nine was hard for us,” Dwyane admitted in the video the couple shared on Instagram in August. “We were kind of reminiscing how we got to even here.”
“Thank you for being there,” he said to Gabrielle in his emotional speed on the balcony during their anniversary celebration. “Thank you for being there to show me all the things I forget along the way … Thank you for teaching me, thank you for believing in me.”
Keep reading to see more stars who’ve opened up about their cancer journeys.