Interrupted, i recount what happened next and hope to offer some guidance to other families who face cancer. It brought out the worst and the best amongst your daughters. And it was also the time that we became that much closer. My cancer journey began in summer, in the hot and humid summer of 2013. It had already been a big year, biking in south america, fishing in montana. I was still having the time of my life. At my side, meredith. Weve been together more than half a century. Weve known each other since we were 15. And things have gone extremely well. You once told your sister you married me, in part, because you knew that we would have an interesting life. Yeah. I also told her wed never have any money. And i said and i dont care because i know its going to be a very exciting and interesting life. And it was still interesting. I was 73, a retired anchorman who was still on the job reporting stories from around the world. I went to africa with meredith for the today show. In malawi, she had an enterprising project teaching local women how to produce and sell tomato sauce. And i was dealing with a pesky backache. I had trouble just trying to pick something up. For weeks on end the pain wouldnt go away. Orthopedists i saw thought it might be arthritis or a minor spinal problem. And, lets just admit it, old age kicking in. But longtime friends noticed something was wrong. Doug campbell manages our montana ranch. He seemed like he had aged quickly in a short amount of time, and he quit doing his morning swims and, you know, was slowing down, i guess you could say. Then in august, i flew to rochester, minnesota. Im a board member at the mayo clinic, and we had a meeting. It was also a time for a checkup with my doctor, andrew majka. Dr. Majka, when i came to you and said ive got back pain and the orthopedist said youve just got to do more stretching. You wanted to do a blood test even though id had one just nine months earlier. What caused some suspicion in your mind . Youre not one to complain. 90 of back pain gets better in a month. And i said it just raised a flag there was could there be Something Else going on that was causing you to have some persistent discomfort . Could there be infection . Inflammation . Disc infection . This type of thing. So thats what made me do some more lab work. The lab work showed something unexpected and sinister. And your white blood cell count had come back. It was low, and im like, theres something. Theres something going on with your bone marrow. Dr. Majka, an internist, called in a mayo clinic colleague, a renowned hematologist. As i was walking across the pedestrian bridge in downtown rochester for the appointment, i had no idea that dr. Morie gertz was about to surprise me with a stunning development. When you diagnosed me, and it was very matter of fact. You looked at me and said you have a malignancy. Its called multiple mi loma. When ive repeated that story to others they said, thats how he told you . Is that how you tell people . Is that the dr. Gertz way . Theres no one way. In your situation, you were kind of planning to come to mayo clinic for the day and then leave. And somehow, i needed to impart the gravity of the situation. Dr. Majka was also there. I just saw your vulnerability, your humanity. And how do i deal with that . I mean, you got hit with a Cruise Missile with multiple warheads. Looking at you, you were stunned. Walking back to my hotel room, i was trying to cope. I was one of the 25,000 people to have been diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2013. Its a blood cancer that starts in the plasma cells in bone marrow and it can cause severe bone damage. So it is a blood disorder, a bone marrow disorder, but over 70 of patients present because of bone pain, whether its in the spine or in the ribs or in the extremities. It is incurable, but it is treatable. Statistically, i had maybe eight years. I knew you were in for a rough ride. Your family wasnt with you to sit down and say, holy smokes. Whats happened . Whats going on here . What does this mean . I couldnt tell meredith. She was back at our ranch in montana. I decided to wait until i flew back the next day. She picked me up at the airport. We made small talk the whole way, but when we arrived at the ranch, i brought her to the bedroom. And we were sitting on the edge of the bed, about 12 30 in the morning. I made a big drink, and i told you i had cancer. What did you think . I didnt believe you. I mean, thats something that you just, out of the blue, cannot absorb in one take. Were you frightened . Well, initially, i think i was i needed to know more. I didnt panic. I didnt think, this is the end of the world. I just needed to know more, because i really didnt understand what we were dealing with. And frankly, neither did i. I wasnt sure what the treatment would be yet, and i didnt know how completely cancer would take over my life. The next day, i made one of the dumbest decisions ever. And i paid a price. Matts gotten used to the funk in his mancave. Yup, hes gone noseblind. He thinks it smells fine, but his wife smells this. Luckily for all your hardtowash fabrics theres febreze fabric refresher febreze doesnt just mask, it eliminates odors youve gone noseblind to break out the febreze, and breathe happy were all familiar with this axe daily fragrances. But what you wouldnt have seen is this, axe dry spray antiperspirant. Why are you touching your armpit . I was just checking to see if its dry. Dont, thats weird. The first ever dry spray antiperspirant from axe. Why are you deleting these photos . Because my teeth are yellow. Why dont you use a whitening toothpaste . Im afraid its bad for my teeth. Try crest 3d white. Crest 3d White Diamond strong toothpaste and rinse. Gently whiten. 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Well, things in the bedroom have always been pretty good. Yeah, no complaints. Weve always had a lot of fun, but i wanted to try something new. And im into that. So were using ky love. Its a pleasure gel that magnifies both of our sensations. Right, i mean, for both of us, just. Yeah, it just takes all those awesome feelings you usually feel and it just makes them. Rawr. Dare to feel more with new ky love. Summer, 2013. I was at my ranch in montana. Just four days earlier, i had been diagnosed with a blood cancer called multiple myeloma, but i was keeping it a secret, just between meredith and me. I was determined to go on with my life at full force, not knowing how unrealistic that would be. Yeah, i did a dumb thing. I get up, and i feel not too bad, so im going to go fishing. And i was going to drive 150 miles across montana, meet some friends and fish. At a friends stream, a half hour into the day, i had to crawl out of the water and to a nearby cabin porch. And curled up, in agonizing pain. And i lay there until another friend of mine came along and said, my god, whats going on . A fishing buddy drove with me for three hours back to our ranch. I was in bed for two days, immobilized by pain. Meredith was on the phone to the mayo clinic getting prescriptions called in. And he was throwing everything he had at me in terms of pain killers, and nothing was working. Nothing, no. I said we have to get out of this remote house in montana and back to the mayo clinic where they could probably find out what the source of the pain was and how to deal with it. Meredith called for help and set up a medevac flight to the mayo clinic, more than a thousand miles away. Two cowboy emts came out from livingston montana, to rush me to the medevac flight. Emt nathan wulf. We found him up in his bedroom in excruciating pain. They loaded me into a portable chair and down a narrow staircase in our small ranch house. It was a tremendous feat just to get him into the chair to move him down stairs. And i thought, where in the world is this going to end up . And by the time we got down to the ambulance, i think i was kind of hallucinating. I dont think i was checked in at that point. I think that you were in so much pain that its hard to even recall for you what that was like, i think. When the emts arrived to carry me out for that ride to the airport, my daughter sarah confronted her mother. And i said tell me right now whats happening to dad. I need to know right now. And she said well he has multiple myeloma. Archer sarah thought immediately of archer. It was awful, especially since he was only six months. And i was mad, too. I thought, you only had six months with him. I wanted to envision you playing baseball with him and fly fishing and not knowing if that was ever gonna happen. The emts got me into the ambulance and drove, as carefully as possible, 60 miles, much of it down a winding, bouncing road to the airport. At any point in time, if we would move or if wed hit any the smallest bumps in the road, it would reproduce some pretty excruciating pain. When we finally arrived, a small private jet took meredith and me on the threehour flight. When i was brought into the mayo clinic, i was in pain and confused. Nurse manager allison meisheid says thats normal. When a Patient First comes in, its an absolute tornado of chaos, of emotion, of agony and frustration for them. The mayo doctors found a more effective combination of pain medication. I had two compression fractures in my lower back, caused by the multiple myeloma, and a hole in my right pelvis. The clock was ticking. Doctors had to attack the myeloma cells that were destroying my blood and my bones. Cancer is evil destruction. Cancer is unpredictable, but cancer can be a gift as well. Thats because it can bring a family even closer. My oldest daughter, jennifer, an emergency room doctor in san francisco, flew out to rochester to act as an interpreter of medical jargon, my allaround patient advocate, and yes, her fathers keeper. I mean, ive never been afraid of asserting myself. Putting it mildly. But i knew that at this moment in time you were going to listen to me and that you werent going to call the shots. My learning curve started right here. I learned lessons from jennifer and my family that everyone with cancer needs to know. First, supportive Family Members are crucial. If you dont have a family, ask a close friend to be at your side. Second, if at all possible, get a friend or Family Member with a medical background to be your advocate. I was very lucky. I had a daughter who was a doctor. One of your famous lines to me had always been you know dad, weve never really had anything go wrong in our family. I wonder if we could handle it . Did you have some doubt about whether we could handle it . No. Absolutely not. I knew that we would rally to whatever challenge presented itself, but we had not had a lot of practice. But that was about to change. By fall 2013 i was back in new york city. It was just a month since i was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. Now i needed to meet the doctor who would be in charge of my ongoing treatment at home in new york. I knew my cancer couldnt be cured, but i was confident it could be brought into remission. It began to dawn on me that this was going to be a long, hard road ahead. I would be going on chemotherapy, take pain medication and get regular tests that would show if the cancer was advancing or in retreat. It never occurred to me that i was going to die. Me being me, of course im going to beat it. No question. Ill get through this somehow. Thats unrealistic in some ways. I was sent to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in new york and became the patient of a young, highly regarded multiple myeloma expert, dr. Heather landau. She and my daughter jennifer quickly bonded. Im not fishing for anything here. We want honest answers. What kind of a patient was i . I think you were challenging at first because it was difficult to get a sense of where you really were. It seems that i, tom brokaw patient 2640 was stoic. Too stoic about the pain that i was in. At sloankettering, dr. Landau told me it actually helps if patients speak up about their pain and how sick they feel. Complain, complain, complain. We can provide Pain Medicine and pain management. Its really challenging if we dont know when things get bad. And that autumn was unexpectedly tough. I was taking 17 pills a day at this point including two daily doses of revlimid, a powerful chemotherapy derived from the notorious drug from the 60s called thalidomide. On the today show when they aired merediths story about malawi and the tomato program, i was weak and still in pain. I had been working on a documentary on the 50th anniversary of jfks assassination. And when i went on David Lettermans program to promote it, i had to practice walking out on stage. Sitting down wasnt much easier. Welcome back. Thank you. Good the be here. On the daily show i asked to be preseated. Somehow, jon stewart says, i was able to get away with it without him knowing just how sick i was. He did mention that his back was hurting. He mentioned you know that he might have a little more difficulty. I assumed he may have pulled a muscle or Something Like lifting a horse or whatever he does out in montana. When the story came out, i told him i didnt want to bother him with my difficulties. The general discussion was, i let him know in my faith, we like to let people know even if its just a little gas, a little heartburn, we still like to talk about it, just get it out in the open. We were trying to keep it from as many people as possible. Yeah. And that was not easy. No. No, not easy because you find yourself dissembling. Its not that we were telling untruths. Its just that we really werent telling the truth. I worried that if i went public, i would be all over the internet. Tom brokaw, cancer victim. And like most Cancer Patients i didnt want my illness to define me. Winter 20132014. As the Holiday Season descended on new york four months had passed since my diagnosis. And then i did a faceplant on the flagstone patio outside our home. There you were, carrying in groceries, slipped on the ice. Had what couldve been a disastrous fall, given that fragility of your bones. But you banged up your face. Patient 2640s Cancer Experience was turning into a numbers game. The gash above my eye was four inches deep and it took 18 stitches to close it. And the disease was an unwelcome companion 24 7. The chemo nurses i saw at memorial Sloan Kettering became my friends. Two of them, katie hambright and mary shannon mcguinness, understood where i was coming from. I realize that my day ends and your day never ends with cancer. You go home with it. Youre probably constantly thinking about it. Whereas i go home and i can go for a run or do something with my friends and try to get it off my mind, where you guys live and breathe it every single day. As the snow fell outside our apartment overlooking central park the view from my living room changed. Cancer got in the way. I used to love to go in there and have a fire and have a drink and pick off a history book. And then when i was diagnosed, id go in there and this screen would come down. And the screen would be cancer. And thats how i saw the world, was through the prism of cancer. And until you get it, you cant understand that. That winter, my family was experiencing what millions of other families are going through every day dealing with the fear, the anxiety. The daily realities of a cancer fight. Some big, some small, all pervasive. These are the granddaughters i affectionately call the hooligans, charlotte and vivian. They call me tom. Theyre my middle daughter andrea and her husband charles kids. And theyre famous in our family for their volume. You remember what vivian said the next time she came . Yeah she said tom, were going to keep the decibels down. She did. Whats a lesson for other families in what weve been through, do you think . I think you just have to really value everybodys time together, you know. And just realize that every day counts. And you have to cut everybody a little bit of slack on stuff that you think is really important. And then when something really important happens, the other stuff isnt so important. For meredith and me, the smaller things in life became much more important. Dinner became a ceremony for us. I mean, that was the one thing we had to look forward to. And i got cancer just in time for the golden age of television. So we had a lot of things, netflix and everything, hbo, downton abbey. Ive never watched so many sporting events in my life, really, i mean, baseball, football, basketball. As i trudged through the city patriots Quarterback Tom Brady was featured on a bus shelter ad for ugg boots. He was the picture of health at the top of his game. Id look up, utter an obscenity, and move on, energized in a way. The chemo nurses understood that silent anger as well. I always tell patients to take each day one at a time. Each day is different and each day is a battle. But just to continue with that hope to get through the bad days. Id had a lot of them which led to an unexpected surgery. A new test with pluggable febreze. We rented this resort, hid smelly objects all over each villa and plugged in febreze. Then real people were asked to stay for a long weekend. Would they smell anything . The room itself was like [sniff] ahhh. Feels like someone has pumped fresh oxygen into the room. On the last day we revealed everything. Oooooohwoww. We were sitting right on it. Febreze is stunningly effective. Continuously eliminate odors for up to 45 days break out the febreze you plug in [inhale exhale mnemonic] and breathe happy. Everyone loves how they feel in dark clothes. And to keep those darks from fading theres woolite darks. Its free of harsh ingredients to help keep dark clothes vibrant for over 30 washes. For the love of darks. Woolite darks. That detergent was like half the price and well have to use like double maybe more im going back to the store . Yes you are. Dish issues . Get cascade complete. One pac cleans tough food better than 6 pacs of the bargain brand combined. Cascade. Now thats clean. Ride away by roy orbison begins to play i ride the highway. Im going my way. I leave a story untold. He just keeps sending more pictures. If youre a freerange chicken you roam free. Its what you do. If you want to save fifteen percent or more on Car Insurance you switch to geico. Its what you do. Two wheels a turnin. And thats how theyre made. No klondike ice cream meets candy bar. The best ice cream bar ever conceived. Ever since darryls wife started using gain flings, their laundry smells more amazing than ever. sniff honey, isnt that the dogs towel . dog noise hey, mi towel, su towel. More scent plus oxi boost and febreze. Its our best gain ever winter 2014. It seemed to never end. And neither did my misery. It had been five months since my cancer diagnosis and i just felt i wasnt getting any better. Well, id get up in the morning and look in the mirror and i was not happy about my condition. Cancer, its just hard to describe. Its the bodys war on itself. And the best oncologists i know all say the same thing. Its medicines greatest enemy, because everything they throw at its, its you know it figures a way to get around it in some fashion. I had been talking to dr. Ken anderson of dana farber Cancer Center in boston. He agreed to consult with my medical team by phone. A world renowned expert in multiple myeloma, he recommended we add another thalidomide offshoot to my regimen a drug called velcade. One of the many recent advances in the treatment of this disease. I think the progress that has already happened in myeloma has been palpable. We have 11 new treatments in the last 10 to 15 years and people are living three to four times longer than they were just a short time ago. Dr. Anderson had treated another highprofile myeloma patient the first woman nominated by a major party for Vice President , geraldine ferraro. She survived for thirteen years after her diagnosis, beating the odds at that time. As a patient, i began to think about other myeloma patients i had known. Frank reynolds of abc news, a predecessor on the today show. Frank mcgee of nbc news, the actor peter boyle. But multiple myeloma seems to strike some groups more than others especially africanamericans. 115 76. In 2007, nbc news reported on the tragic story of pro footballs elijah alexander, who played for the Oakland Raiders and tampa bay buccaneers. After he was diagnosed he started a foundation, tackle myeloma. His wife, kimberly. He was very young. He was only 35. And at the time they found it, he actually was at the worst stage. With eli, he didnt have back pain. His pain came from his feet. In the feet . Right. Kimberly had to take on being more than just a wife and mother of their two young boys. You were nurse. Yes. You were the pep leader. You know keeping him going. Mmhmm. It was a big learning curve, wasnt it . Very. I mean, you have to be not only supportive of the patient and keep their spirits lifted, but you also have to be realistic about what the outcome may be, because there are so many unknowns when it comes to the disease. Elijah alexander went through a grueling stem cell transplant, but he died after a courageous fiveyear fight, and he was just 39. For a time i thought id have to have a stem cell transplant but, i was able to be treated effectively with drugs alone. And every time id be feeling low, id think of people like kathy giusti. I was told you have three years to live. There were no ifs, ands or buts about that. There werent any drugs in the pipeline. She is a commander in the fight against multiple myeloma. She was diagnosed at age 37, had a bone Marrow Transplant and personally started the multiple Myeloma Research foundation. She has now survived 19 years. What i say to everybody now is a diagnosis in 1996 was definitely not lucky. A diagnosis today in a transformative time, its not lucky, but its a lot luckier. Almost 50 of the advances in myeloma treatment have happened in the past five years. In fact in many cancers, the advances have been dramatic. I did learn some big lessons that winter. A patient and family have to be active partners in the care, ensuring the medical team is in Constant Contact with one another. Case in point, look at these pictures of my spine. In january, 2014, i was put under general anesthesia while the doctors shored up fractures with a cement injected through a needle. Somehow a bone specialist earlier missed the fact that i had all of these fractures. The procedure would not have been as complicated if they had been discovered sooner and maybe the fact i kept minimizing my pain made it partly my fault. My neuroradiologist, dr. Eric lis, saved the day after he was alerted by meredith. But you said your pain was 2 out of 10. Yeah. And your wife, merediths eyes were just rolling. Yeah. And youre like well its not so bad. Im doing this. And im saying to myself my goodness. I should do something. So its better for a patient to take it up rather than down. Absolutely. I kind of want to know that. By the end of january i was starting to recover from that procedure. My daughter andrea teased me i wasnt the same guy i used to be. I stood up and you stood up and you didnt get very far. And i thought what happened . I lost two inches when they repaired my spine. That was unexpected. Youre still the big man of the house, dad. Dont worry about it. But soon i had an unrelated and upsetting setback. A common illness became a crisis. With secret outlast clear gel, youre ready no matter how long your day gets. Guys listen up the most important lesson today is safety. Jake, put that down chin up secrets clear gel formula. Gives you 48hour odor protection and goes on clear for no white marks. Point it at the ground til your ready thats not the ground so when your day goes on and on kevin sue put that down. And on fire outlast it with secret outlast clear gel. Also in clinical strength. Well, things in the bedroom have always been pretty good. Yeah, no complaints. Weve always had a lot of fun, but i wanted to try something new. And im into that. So were using ky love. Its a pleasure gel that magnifies both of our sensations. Right, i mean, for both of us, just. Yeah, it just takes all those awesome feelings you usually feel and it just makes them. Rawr. Dare to feel more with new ky love. Hows it progressing with the prisoner . Hell tell us everything he knows very shortly, sir. As you were. Where were we . 13 serving 14 service if your boss stops by, you act like youre working. Its what you do. If you want to save fifteen percent or more on Car Insurance, you switch to geico. Its what you do. Discover new magnum double Peanut Butter. Made with a perfect balance of Peanut Butter ice cream Peanut Buttery sauce and belgian chocolate. Discover magnum chocolate pleasure. I really like pillows. Maybe too much. Go ahead, call me a hoarder. Ive got these little enablers ziploc spacebags. See . Way more space. [whispered] for more pillows. Sj johnson ive been the same shade of red for many years. I think its time to change it up goodbye, red. Hello, golden blonde. Shifting to a new shade is sort of a new beginning but i knew it was going to be natural because its nicen easy. Clairols 1 for natural looking color i dont know if blonde has more fun, but i plan to find out. Now you can earn free color with clairol platinum rewards as the worst of winter was winding down, i continued to wonder, what would the next day bring or the next medical test . And then after keeping it secret for six months, my cancer diagnosis did become public. Veteran newsman tom brokaw revealed tuesday that he is battling cancer. The outpouring of concern was overwhelming and moving. But when the word finally did get out, it reminded me of how little even wellmeaning people really understand. One of the lessons that i learned and which im trying to convey with my book and when i talk about it is that if you have a friend who has cancer, youre sympathetic. You really dont know whats going on with cancer until it enters your body and becomes part of your family. And only then can you be empathetic that you understand what it is that you are going through. I think youre so right. I think that the only way to really know what its like to have cancer is actually to have it yourself. A week after the news i made a crosscountry trip to los angeles. Thats the thing, is you go to that place in your life where you have to deal with medical issues and you just dont know what to do. I continued to fight fatigue. But spending time with Angelina Jolie helped. And i got to meet the legendary athlete and World War Two p. O. W. Louis zamperini, of unbroken. No matter what the situation is, ive learned how to be content. Ive learned how to handle it. I am no louis zamperini. But i did tell him i shared his determination. And then, as spring finally arrived, another big setback. In early april, i caught the flu, which can be a fatal complication for multiple myeloma patients because the immune system is so weak. I was hospitalized for three days of intensive treatment. Once again, patient 2640 was in the building. And when you spend a lot of time in hospitals, you think about the toll cancer takes on families. Physically, emotionally, financially. Look, i had resources. I had financial resources. But ive been thinking a lot about people who live out in the middle of the country, and theyve got a modest healthcare plan. Something like this hits and i dont know where they go and how they have the rest of their life. Is that wrong . No. I think this turns your world upside down. All of a sudden your husband has to take off work to take you to chemotherapy appointments. Your children are now providing care for you. And these are all dollars. Dollars that are not accounted for by Insurance Companies necessarily. And our family had other crises to manage. It was especially stressful for jennifer, the doctor. Your husbands mother your motherinlaw, died of pancreatic cancer. My younger brother, bill, who was a favorite uncle of yours, you figured out that he was in dementia and headed for alzheimers. And you had to kind of manage his case and keep your eye on me. Were there times when you went home at night just looked in the mirror and said, i cant keep doing this . Im going to try not to get teary now. Yeah, that was, that was an an incredibly difficult year for me. Im really honored i played the role i did for each and every one of you, but i cant say that it didnt take a lot out of me. And thats another lesson that ive learned. Our caretakers need care, as well. If you know one, reach out to them. Be there for them. And im not just talking about caring for Cancer Patients. As our population ages, there are millions of american caregivers at the breaking point. As people get older and more infirm, you know, theres a domino effect in the immediate Family Circle for the caregiver. And i think its time we Start Talking about the impact on the caregiver. So has my illness, in any way, changed your life . Completely. I think seeing you really sick. Youre still formidable in my eyes and you still have very much of an alpha disposition, but i recognize that you are older, you know. And that i no longer can be your little girl, that i now need to take on the role as an adult woman who is going to take care of her dad. Im no longer the little girl. By spring of last year i was getting some unexpected honors. Nbc news named their new Los Angeles Bureau the brokaw news center. Thank you all very much. I wondered laughing did they know something about my condition that i didnt . Not long afterward i had a major evaluation at memorial Sloan Kettering. Was the treatment effective . Or was the cancer winning . All doctors know cancer is medicines most ferocious enemy. Its like wow, this drug really works. All of a sudden theres resistant and mutations. Its almost like its kind of like alive. Its almost like some sort of i dont want to say alien, but something terrible. Beast. Absolutely that has its own appear jend da. I had been on a very aggressive treatment plan. Including the drugs revlimid, velcade, and dexamethasone. I finally got the word that my numbers were looking good. Did that mean what i thought it meant . As spring turned into summer last year, i was having another setback in my fight against multiple myeloma. I had severe bronchitis. It looked like i might have to miss the 70th anniversary of dday in france. But after a militarylike assault with antibiotics, i was finally cleared to go. Normandy put things in perspective. Around here, i could never complain about what i was going through or about growing old. So many here were never given the chance. Dday veteran frank devita. You know theres a fallacy. People think that when a man is dying, they dont ask for god. The last word that they say before they die is mama. I was emotionally exhausted by the end of that week in normandy, but i wouldnt have been anywhere else. As summer arrived, however, i still wasnt feeling up to par. Jennifer got in touch with my main doctor, heather landau. So what were you telling her about me . I mean, i need to know these things. Yeah. Heather was looking at your numbers. They all looked really good. But you yourself were still very fatigued and i think really dealing with way more pain than you should have been. And i felt it was important to communicate that to heather. Dr. Landau and the rest of my team adjusted my regimen and i started to regain some strength. It had been nearly a year since my diagnosis. I asked dr. Majka if maybe all my doctors could have been a little more realistic. A lot of the specialists said you know youre going to be up and around nine months ten months, youre going to be back on your feet. Wasnt true. Thats the toughest part of what we deal with is the uncertainty of hows someone going to do. We want hope, but we also need the reality of whats going on. Another frustration i heard about from many other Cancer Patients, that theyre alone, lost, and no one is around to coordinate their treatment. Investigative journalist steven brill, who wrote the book, americas bitter pill, told me it is a very common complaint. Theres no general contractor, if you will. Youre shunted from place to place. Especially if you dont live in a place where theres the specialist, so you have to go from where you live to the specialist and back again. All of that on top of the fact that you have cancer. It was ten months since my diagnosis. I was feeling stronger, in anticipation of a visit to my past. Hey, how are you . Nice to see you again. It was a unique reunion at the majestic Fort Randall Dam on the Missouri River in south dakota. Right after world war ii, the government built pickstown to house the workers who would build the dam and their families. Following my depression and the war, this was a godsend. America was on the move again. People who came here were really products of the depression first and then the war. They were the people that i call the greatest generation. By fall, after living with multiple myeloma for more than a year, i was able to step up the pace. I went to berlin for the 25th anniversary of the fall of the berlin wall. Live from the berlin wall on the most historic night in this walls history. I was a little taken aback when i saw what 25 years can do. All the while, however, i had that nagging concern. What if this cancer is advancing . And i had that nagging everpresent backache. What ive asked for is just one great day where im pain free since the diagnosis. I dont think ive had one. He has lent his voice to our nations heroes. And then an unexpected singular honor. The president ial medal of freedom from president obama. It was a memorable moment, but i reminded my nbc colleagues past and present that it was their award just as much as it was mine. Im just the face out front, but theres an Extraordinary Army behind me. And then, just as another long winter set in, i received some good news. At memorial Sloan Kettering, dr. Landau informed me i was finally, finally in remission. I am not cured. Im still getting chemo treatments for maintenance, but this is a welcome step. When patients go into remission then i think its great to be able to offer patients like yourself chemotherapy plus maintenance, which has been shown to provide longterm overall survival benefit. I am now doing physical therapy for my back and spine. Ive started to ride bikes again. But i am taking it slowly. And what ive learned about managing personal health care crises could fill a book. First of all, dont be afraid to ask questions. I would say make sure youre getting to a doctor that sees a high number of patients with your specific type of cancer. Make sure you get a second opinion. Dr. Ken anderson at dana farber showed me around his lab. And we can understand which drugs or which combinations can actually make a difference. This is just one of the many places where impressive advances are being made in all types of cancer treatment. Immunotherapy is one of the most promising developments. Whats so hopeful about immunotherapy is you are using the patients own defense to fight their cancer. You are giving them an antibody or a vaccine or revving their immune system, those fighter cells, so that it will attack that cancer in a really early or strong way. Thats a home run for patients. And this patient had a home field advantage. This journey has been difficult but rewarding in so many ways. Our already close family, even closer. Every day with the grandchildren more enjoyable. My family was with me every step of the way. I saw you behaving with a lot of grace throughout that year. You just powered through. And ill never forget that. When things were really not going well for me my brother my brother was dying of alzheimers. Yes. And i said, this has been a terrible year. Yes. And what did you say . I said this is the year that archer was born. And this is the time we celebrate, that this is when we recognize that with loss comes gain. I had a very hard time seeing you, as you were struggling with all of this, in the beginning. It was hard, just because it would have been hard for you to see me in the same position. I know that. So, fortunately, weve come a long way. And now patient 264 o is cherishing his 75th summer. Hoping for many more sunny days, more good news than bad. And above all, family. Thats all for now. Im tom brokaw. Thanks for joining us. Meet the press. This sunday terror in tennessee. The fbi reviewing a text message the chattanooga gunman sent to him just before the attack. The iran nuclear deal. I believe it poses a great deal to america and the world. We have all sides of the debate covered with british Prime MinisterDavid Cameron secretary of state john kerry and a key republican critic, arkansas senator tom cotton. And the trump factor. Republicans pile on after trump says this about john mccain. Hes a war hero. Hes a war hero because hes captured. I like people who werent captured. Is this the moment republicans decide enough is enough. Im chuck todd. Joining us Thomas Friedman of the new york times. Andrea mitchell finally back from v