Medicare

Dallas Morning News Reporter Shares Cancer Fight

Jeffrey Weiss, reporter for The Dallas Morning News, is writing the final draft of his life.

"This is almost all stuff related to my case," Weiss said, while pointing to papers and folders on his desk at home.

Weiss has worked as a journalist for 36 years.

"What I've always liked about journalism is that it can be of benefit to people," Weiss said.

His most recent report for The Dallas Morning News is far from his business beat – it's personal.

"This is my third cancer in my career," Weiss said.

It started with struggling for words, a blind spot in his vision and his wife taking him to the hospital.

"The doctor comes out and shows me the image of this big, huge tumor in the lower left part of my brain and I laughed!" Weiss said with a smile. "I said, 'That's amazing!' because I've written about medical stuff before, and the idea that a tumor that large would have produced such few effects, I had no idea that that was possible," Weiss said.

He considers himself weirdly optimistic, especially about learning that his life's final edition is coming soon.

"Glioblastoma's median survival is about 14 months," Weiss said. "Once it was explained to me that this is a potential fatality that I needed to worry about, I said to myself, 'That means I'm not going to have to do a lot of the things that I don't have to do. I can do things that I want to do!'"

Weiss has finished his final rounds of radiation and chemotherapy pills. It's all in an effort to prolong his shortened life.

"The chance of me making it to my 64th birthday the next year? Not very good. The chance of me hitting 65 and Medicare? Pretty much a lottery ticket, but someone wins the lottery sometimes," Weiss said.

He said at some point his symptoms will get worse and his brain cancer might get him down.

"But at the moment, I'm riding my trike, and I'm writing things a lot, and I'm playing with the dogs, and I baked amazing cookies last week. And I'm not having to do lots of things that I don't want to do. That's upbeat," Weiss said.

He said he wants to go out like fireworks, yet he does have hope that his treatments will help him beat the median life expectancy for Glioblastoma.

Weiss's wife, Marni, wrote these tips for spouses of people with serious illnesses.

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