NBA legend Dwyane Wade revealed for the first time that he underwent major surgery due to remove a cancerous tumor.
The beloved Hall of Fame player, who won three championships with the Miami Heat, told fans on his podcast, “The WY Network,” that he had to have 40 percent of his right kidney removed 13 months ago. Afterward, Wade said the doctors revealed to him that the tumor was cancerous.
Wade, aka “D-Wade,” shared on the podcast that he neglected to go to the doctor for routine physicals for years. But he had been experiencing significant stomach discomfort, cramps and had been urinating slowly.
Inspired to finally go to the doctor by his father’s journey with prostate cancer, Wade asked himself some hard questions.
“On the process of checking, like, ‘Why is my piss coming out slow, why is my stream ain’t powerful? Why is it a little weak?’ ” D-Wade recalls on his podcast to co-host Bob Metelus.
Once he went through a body scan, the physician told D-Wade that there was a “cyst/tumor” on one of his kidneys.
“And the doctor was like, ‘You need to have kidney surgery,’ ” he adds.
Following the removal, his doctor told him that it was cancerous.
“My own journey to have that surgery, I think it was the first time that my family, my dad, my kids, they saw me weak,” Wade shares. “That moment was probably the weakest point I’ve ever felt in my life.”
After a pause, D-Wade said that was “The moment I was by myself, I was struggling, dog.”
The icon continued, saying, “I had a personal decision to make, and what it was was, ‘If this is cancerous, if this tumor, this cyst is cancerous, on your kidney, you’re 41 years old, you probably need surgery because it’s something that needs to be removed so it doesn’t spread,’ ” Wade says.
D-Wade said he found himsel in a position he’d never been in before in his life.
“As a man, you never want your family to see you weak,” he says. “Don’t want to be perceived weak, don’t want to be seen in your weakest moments but I had to.”
D-Wade, who is married to actress Gabrielle Union and is the father of five, said during the weakest moments of his life, he said his family came together to provide him the strength he couldn’t muster up himself.
“What I saw in the midst of me going through my illness, I saw my family that may not always talk, may not always agree. I saw everybody show up for me and be there for me and in that process, in my weakness I found strength in my family.”
