(CNN) — Edward James Olmos has opened up about his recent health problem, calling it “an experience that changed him.”
“This is the first time I’ve said it publicly, but I had throat cancer,” Olmos, 76, said on the “Mando & Friends” podcast on Friday.
“I just got over it. December 20th was my last radiation. The week before I had finished chemo and [durante] months and months I was on radiation and chemo while my throat was attacking.
The “Selena” actor explained that five doctors counseled him before the treatment and warned him, “We just have to tell you one thing: We don’t know what your voice is going to sound like” after they finished.
“I said, ‘What?'” Olmos recalled.
He described the cancer as “a very strong disease,” saying doctors had to “shoot” his vocal cords with radiation.
“We’re shooting at your vocal cords, we’re shooting at your throat; where you eat, where you swallow, where you talk, where you breathe, it all goes through here,” he said, later adding: “Many of my friends have died from this.”
He said the experience “took a lot out of him,” and he lost 50 pounds and all his muscle tone.
“During the months that I was in treatment, there were times when the body gave up,” Olmos said. “And I didn’t want to take the food down my stomach. They wanted to put tubes in me and feed me nutrients because I couldn’t swallow. They had to put 2,500 calories into my body every day. It was ridiculous, very hard.”
Reflecting on her ordeal, Olmos said on the podcast that “it was an experience that changed me, the realization of how wonderful this life is.”
“I’ve been through some experiences that have brought me closer to death, but that was close,” he added.
Olmos is an actor best known for his Oscar-nominated performance in “Stand and Deliver” (1988), which told the true story of high school teacher Jaime Escalante, who served as an inspiration to his marginalized students. Most recently, he was one of the leads in the series “Mayans MC” on FX.
