The actor’s tumor has shrunk to a record, but 2.5 years after the coronavirus, he still has shortness of breath and feels confused
In March 2020, while doing his morning exercise, Jeff Bridges felt a weight in his stomach. At that time, the elderly but still charming actor was filming his next movie – the serial TV action drama “The Old Man”. Due to the covid quarantine, filming has stopped and Jeff and his wife are going on a trip to Montana. Bridges, 70, is in great shape, suffering only from itchy shins and night sweats. He has no idea that these are symptoms of lymphoma. When he did undergo an examination, the Hollywood star was shocked to hear that he was suffering from an advanced stage of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL), a type of blood cancer that develops in white blood cells called lymphocytes, and has 75 subtypes. Although lymphocytes are a type of blood cell, most of them do not live in the blood, but in the lymph, an important part of the human immune system. Therefore, the disease is known as cancer of the lymphatic system. It forms tumors mainly from lymph nodes. “My doctor found a huge tumor – 23 by 30 centimeters. I didn’t feel it even when they punched me in the movie,” says the 73-year-old Bridges today.
Handsome and famous, with an Academy Award for a male role in “Crazy Heart” and 6 other nominations, happily married to the love of his life, with 3 beautiful daughters, Jeff is considered one of the lucky ones in the world of cinema. And in the sunset of his life, a hard struggle begins. But even in this situation, the Sagittarius on-screen celebrity is lucky. Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is often curable.
Jeff begins chemotherapy. In the beginning, while the doctors are still fine-tuning the right chemical cocktail for him, the treatment goes smoothly. But the filming of “The Old Man” still stopped after filming only 4 episodes. Cancer is always bad news, but for the American actor, it doesn’t come alone. In January 2021, a letter from the chemotherapy office informed him that he was infected with the new coronavirus. “Chemotherapy destroyed my immune system, I couldn’t fight this infection either – says the patient. – Compared to the torments of covid, those of cancer were nothing. I touched death, I accepted that it was coming to take me.” Suffers from unbearable chest pains, suffocates. He is unable to breathe and turn in bed without oxygen.
“The doctors told me: ‘Jeff, you have to fight!’ But I had surrendered. By nature, he is magnetic, broad-minded, optimistic. He is full of talents – in addition to the cinema, he also performs as a musician, plays the guitar, sings country and records albums. He illustrates children’s books written by his eldest daughter, Isabelle, and is engaged in photography. But he thinks the time has come to say goodbye to everything.
“I said to myself: Everyone dies – it was my turn to embark on this adventure as well. Instead of being afraid of death, I became closer to it,” says Bridges in an interview with The Magazine. But it seems he’s managed to outlast the Lady with the Hair so far, armed with an alchemy of intense curiosity, personal will, family love and a little reverence for science, the paper said.
The actor leans on a strong shoulder – his wife Susan Geston. This 70-year-old but still beautiful as an angel lady, his wife of 46 years, his undying passion and most loyal friend. “Sue was my champion. Lived with me in hospital when I was at my worst. Then again in my recovery. All the time he fought a titanic battle against mechanical ventilation, he encouraged me to breathe on my own”, says the husband. Thanks to her, he gets by without a ventilator, he is treated with convalescent plasma taken from a person who has recovered from covid. Through infusions and then chemotherapy with tablets, the specialists managed to put the cancer in remission relatively quickly.
The actor marvels at the people who worked to save him. “Nurses and doctors were impressive. They constantly consulted, discussed possible treatments and medications. They were so focused, dedicated, beautiful…” The patient gradually recovered, and after weeks in the hospital, he was moved to a converted garage in his home connected to oxygen tanks. First he is in bed, and then he sits in a leather relax armchair, similar to the one from his screen hit “The Big Lebowski”.
In August 2021, he gathered the strength to take his youngest daughter Hailey down the aisle and even dance with her.
Today, the actor is already in shape and begins filming a new season of the series, where he plays a former CIA agent on the run from his past and hunted by colleagues to kill him. He meditates and does breathing and stretching exercises that give him strength to work. His tumor has shrunk to a 2-3 cm ball, but recovery from covid has dragged on and he says has aged him.
“It was a long and painful process, and it still is. After jumping over the ladder, my record for standing upright without collapsing was 45 seconds. They praised me: “Well done, it lasted almost a minute. Let’s see if you can move a meter and a half – he says. “I didn’t believe that I would work again, and here I am starting the second season of the film.”
Today his life is almost normal. But even now, he breathes a little raggedly, sometimes he feels confused, and in the morning he takes a long time to get out of bed. But he is alive and working, something he never hoped for. “The encounter with death gave me a real gift – I realized how short and beautiful life is. And that love is all around us, ready to shower us with its grace.”
2023-08-16 00:00:00
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