Rush Limbaugh Producer Gives Update on Radio Host's Health as He Misses Taping During Cancer Treatment

https://people.com ^ | February 11, 2021 03:52 PM | By Virginia Chamlee

[Red Badger]

Rush Limbaugh's staffers said they are "praying for a remission" for his advanced lung cancer, which on Wednesday appeared to cause him to miss a taping of his eponymous radio show.

Limbaugh's producer James Golden tweeted Wednesday that Ken Matthews would fill in for the controversial conservative host "as he continues to fight the illness."

There was also a fill-in for Limbaugh's Thursday episode. A ticker on the show's official website noted that "it's treatment week and Rush will be off the air today."

Limbaugh, 70, was diagnosed with lung cancer in late January 2020, telling fans while on the air that he would miss some upcoming recordings because of either receiving or recovering from treatment.

He has said that he "first realized something was wrong" around Jan. 12 last year, with his diagnosis later confirmed the following week.

"I wish I didn't have to tell you this and I thought about not telling anybody," he said in a February episode of his show. "I thought about trying to do this without anybody knowing 'cause I don't like making things about me."

Still, he said, "This has happened and my intention is to come here every day I can and to do this program as normally and as competently and as expertly as I do each and every day, because that is the source of my greatest satisfaction, professionally, personally."

In May, the infamously incendiary radio personality grew candid in discussing his third round of treatment for the cancer, which he said was "kicking my a--" and had made him "virtually worthless, virtually useless."

At the time, Limbaugh said he had just begun "week two of this third cycle," though "the impact on the tumor in these three weeks is not expected to be significant."

[rockabyebaby]

Taping? Rush has always delivered his show live.

They may be referring to a taped message that he sometimes does for his audience.

[newfreep]

Thank you for those kind words.

Even though it’s been 4 decades, some “daze” it feels like yesterday and a very heavy weight that can get quite depressing.

Thank God for my Christian faith...

[Captain Peter Blood]

Actually cigars can be quite dangerous, rush smoked a lot of cigars everyday.

[backwoods-engineer]

Oh dear.

[ml/nj]

Perhaps he just had [surgery]? That would explain both his absence and the absence of a 2 or 3 minute recorded update?

Could be. I was diagnosed with Stage Four Ureteral Cancer two and a half years ago. My chemo treatments didn't do much more than make me somewhat more tired than usual. But they did wipe out all of the metastases. Back in May I had surgery to eliminate the original source of my cancer. This completely wiped me out for a week and then it was another three weeks until I was pretty much normal again.

ML/NJ