News Anchor Goes Straight To The Hospital After Viewer Notices Odd Detail About Her
Victoria Price had been working for NBC for less than two years when the worldwide quarantine brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic hit. As her work ramped-up in the news station, her health suffered... big time. And yet, if it weren't for one hawk-eyed viewer, Victoria never would have noticed.
Pandemic Stress
Victoria Price was unaware that her health was compromised. Her entire Florida news team was working long hours, day and night, with no intentions of slowing down. If she wanted to keep her position, she'd have to keep her composure. In fact, she prided herself on it.
Huge Story
"As a journalist, it's been full throttle since the pandemic began," Price said on her Instagram. "We were covering the most important health story in a century, but my own health was the farthest thing from my mind." That is, until a viewer chimed in.
The Email
After a long day of newscasting, Price logged into her email to discover a message from a concerned viewer. Her words for Price were so jarring that the news anchor was quite concerned.
Similar Symptoms
The woman writing the email noted that Price's neck looked abnormally swollen. While she wasn't a doctor, the viewer told the news anchor she might want to visit a doctor and get her throat checked out. Of course, Price was skeptical.
No Symptoms Noticed
At first, Price hoped the viewer was mistaken. She wasn't feeling ill, after all. Sure, her throat was a bit sore, but her job was to speak all day long. A little hoarseness was expected. Still, she decided to give her doctor a call.
What's Up, Doc?
Price explained to her doctor that she had no symptoms other than a swollen throat. Her doctor informed her that, even though she was mostly asymptomatic, she should pay him a visit. Frightened by his foreboding words, Price set up an emergency appointment right away.
The Examination
Price showed up to her doctor's office, masked-up and ready for anything. He took a look at her thyroid and, after a few moments, confirmed her fears; Price had developed thyroid cancer in the middle of her neck. The news got even worse.
Visible Cancer
While cancer is typically a disease that develops within our bodies, there are certain types that can be seen from the outside. The most common of these visible cancers could be hiding right under your nose. Well... perhaps a little lower than that.
Most Common Symptoms
The most common symptoms of thyroid cancer include a swollen neck, pain up to the ears, and trouble swallowing. However, these can also be signs of a standard sore throat. Bad news kept piling up.
Spreading Quickly
Thyroid cancer can spread like wildfire. Once past the thyroid, it can spread far enough to cause irreversible damage. Unfortunately, Price's cancer had already begun to spread into her lymph nodes — but had it gone too far?
Glimmer of Hope
Thankfully, Price's doctor said she was lucky. Her cancer had just begun its attack on her lymph nodes, which means the viewer might have caught it just in time! However, there was still a chance of complications, as Price was going to need throat surgery.
Staying Positive
Thankfully, Price was very positive about her outcome. She was expected to only need one surgical treatment with no chemotherapy or additional procedures. To help calm her nerves, she decided to post about her diagnosis on social media and was instantly bombarded with questions!
Love and Concern
Price received tons of love and personal stories from her followers, plus an array of inquiries regarding her diagnosis. One user pointed out that they couldn't see the lump at all, to which Price responded with an insightful point.
Clearing Things Up
“It’s not super obvious unless you know what to look for," said Price, who then took a photo from a new angle. This helped her followers fully understand what the viewer saw — and what to look for themselves. So, how did Price's surgery go?
Battle Scars
On the day of her surgery, Price posted a photo of her self in recovery, enjoying a popsicle. “Aside from a little stiffness, soreness, and weakness, I’m feeling pretty great," she said. As she healed, Price continued sharing about her experience on Instagram. She even claims that the surgery was the easiest part!
Tough Recovery
"Prior to my thyroidectomy, a lot of people told me “the surgery is the easy part!” I didn’t understand that at first. Now I do." Price gave her followers a crash course about her months-long process of recovery, even sharing some not-safe-for-work photos. Her prognosis?
Recovering Gracefully
“It’s not a death sentence, but it’s a life sentence," says Price, who will forever be in recovery. "I’ll be on levo and need to balance these levels for the rest of my life... I may be scarred, but I ain’t scared.” Thankful to still be alive, Price has some words of advice.
Message of Hope
“Take care of yourself. Take care of each other. A little kindness went a long way for me.” Price had one observant viewer to thank for catching the visible signs of danger, but even an audience of millions every morning didn't notice the quiet battle Today show anchor Al Roker kept under wraps.
Doctor's Orders
Al was no stranger to medical drama. Between 2016 and 2020, he'd endured surgeries on his shoulder, hip, and knee, but this was a little different. After a routine physical, Dr. Vincent Laudone noticed elevated numbers of a prostate-specific antigen in his blood. He suggested Al get an MRI — so the newscaster did.
Feeling Fine
"This one was kind of just a weird feeling that nobody can outwardly see anything different about me," Al said, taking stock of his body. "I looked in the mirror, there was nothing outwardly different. But I knew there was something intrinsically, inherently, internally different." The MRI results proved that.
The 'C' Word
"You hear the word 'cancer,'" Al said, "and your mind goes, it's the next level, you know?" In the brief seconds following the diagnosis, he could only think I'm going to die. He suddenly felt very lonely in the cold, sterile doctor's office, wishing his wife was at his side.
With Deborah in the Know
"I feel badly, because I didn't tell Deborah to come with me," Al said, speaking of ABC News reporter Deborah Roberts, whom he's been happily married to since 1995. "In hindsight, boy I wish I'd told her to come. She was upset. And once she got past that, the reporter in her kinda took over. And then she's been at everything ever since!"
The Next Day
But after mulling over the diagnosis for a minute, and finally speaking with Deborah and his three kids — Courtney, Nicholas, and Leila — Al returned to his signature optimism, even returning to work the very next day after his diagnosis, though he kept his cancer personal at the time. Eventually, though, he needed to make a bold move.
Live On-Air
On November 2020, the iconic weatherman appeared before viewers on The Today Show, just as he'd done so many time before. "It's a good news–bad news kind of thing," Al said. "Good news is we caught it early." The bad, however, was a lot to handle on his own.
Good and Bad
"Not-great news," he continued, "is that it's a little aggressive, so I'm going to be taking some time off to take care of this." He assured viewers he would be back stronger than ever — a starkly different feeling then he'd had back in the doctor's office — because he had a plan.
Options
He and Deborah discussed some different options. "After discussion regarding all of the different options — surgery, radiation, focal therapy — we settled on removing the prostate," Dr. Laudone said on The Today Show.
Post-Op
A week later, Al resurfaced online, letting viewers know that his 4-hour surgery was complete, and he was still taking some time to rest up. In an appearance on Today, he shared his story with viewers, hoping to demystify the terrifying cancer process.
The Michelin Man
"I feel good," Al said. "The technology has gotten so good — they did it with a robot — that I felt much better after the surgery than I did with any of my joint replacements. I didn't feel like I had major surgery, but I've got this swelling around my stomach, so clothes don't fit quite right right now. I'm very vain, so right now I feel like the Michelin Man." Recovery was a process all its own, however.
Great Shape
"The goal is to get him back to normal activity," his doctor said. "And so the fact that he walks a lot now, that he keeps himself in good shape, that he eats healthy, all of those things are really a plus when it comes to how he will recover after surgery." Al, of course, knew this was going to change his life regardless.
The Relief
"It was this great relief," he told Today after learning that there was no trace of cancer in his system. "For a first start, this is terrific news. I'm going to be up for — and a lot of people who live with cancer — up for lifelong testing to make sure this doesn't come back." Doctors agreed.
Message for All
"The prognosis at this point in time based on how the surgery went and based on his pathology report, everything looks very favorable," Al's doctor said. "We would say that Al has no evidence of any cancer, but we'll continue to monitor him for several years." Still, Al wasn't finished. He now had a message for the entire world.
Prostates Galore!
Because prostate health has always been important to Al Roker — he had an exam on live TV in 2013 and teamed up with the NHL's New Jersey Devils in 2019 to create a prostate health public service announcement — he wanted to use this opportunity to push his message further, and to one community in particular.
Dr. Carol Brown
According to specialists at the Memorial Sloane Kettering Cancer Center, Black men are twice as likely to get prostate cancer and twice as likely to die from it. Dr. Carol Brown says "There are no symptoms with early prostate cancer, so screening saves lives, and African American men need to get screened and should get screened usually starting at age 40." Al weighed in.
African American Bias
"The problem for African American men," he said, "is that any number of reasons from genetics to access to health care" can be a factor in the death tolls. He knew his friends and family would be worried about him, so Al delivered another message — once again full of his classic optimism.
Goodbye 2020
"I don't want people thinking, 'Oh, poor Al,' you know, because I'm gonna be OK," Al said. "You know what? If that's what it takes to get 2020 out, then let's just get it outta the way. Boom! Let's just finish it off. I'm ready. How about you?" In fact, Al found some surprising pleasantries in his diagnosis.
Reaching Out
Fans reaching out warmed his heart. "You don't hear about this [kind of national attention] until you're dead," he said with a laugh. But when he announced he'd return to The Today Show on November 22nd, fans only had one question for him — and it wasn't about his health.
Wait And See
"That's what everyone's been asking, is there going to be a Thanksgiving Day parade? We're telling them yes, but it will be different," Al said. "But it's happening. My only question is, will I find butter?" Of course, Al did find his nemesis, The Man Dressed as Butter. All the while, fans were just happy to have Al at all — and his co-host.
Stunning Career
After all, Al's message to everyone — get checked — was bolstered by his co-anchor, Hoda Kotb, who had her own health issues. She'd covered topics ranging from international conflicts to informal conversations and has earned her place as an icon. But there's one story the Today Show host hadn't covered for some time: her own personal struggles.
Open Talks
Her career started as a CBS News – news assistant in 1986, and after anchoring some local news stations, she hit the big time, joining NBC News in 1997. She was warm, welcoming, and engaging, but silent on some of the biggest struggles in her life.
Landing Today
In 2007, though, Kotb landed a more cheerful gig on Today. She was joined by Kathie Lee Gifford a year later, and the pair soon built up one of the most natural on-screen partnerships on morning TV. Kotb would occasionally stand in for the show’s main anchors Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie, too.
Breaking Records
And Kotb would eventually have the chance to work alongside Guthrie on a permanent basis. Following Lauer’s controversial departure from Today during the winter of 2017, the Egyptian-American was announced as his official replacement. This was a history-maker, as it marked the first time that two women had taken both of the NBC show’s main anchor positions.
Covering Up
Fortunately, audiences seemed to love the duo. During their trial run together, Kotb and Guthrie helped Today to beat the show’s fiercest rival, Good Morning America, in the ratings for a month straight. But behind the scenes, Kotb was dealing with her fair share of personal trauma. And in time, she would receive news that would completely turn her life upside down.
Seeming Healthy
Up until that point, Kotb had seemingly been relatively healthy. She had been ambitious, too, ever since her college days. While studying broadcast journalism at Virginia Tech University in the mid-1980s, she became a regular voice on college radio at WUVT. The same year that Kotb graduated, she also landed a news position at CBS.
Back To Her Roots
This position was based in the Egyptian capital, Cairo. Kotb’s parents had grown up in the city before moving to Oklahoma to continue their studies and then start a family. The morning TV host would occasionally join her parents and two siblings on lengthy trips to their homeland.
World Traveler
Kotb would soon have further broadcasting roles in the likes of Florida, Illinois and Mississippi for various ABC and CBS affiliates. She eventually relocated to New Orleans’ WWL-TV after securing an anchor-reporter position. The broadcaster spent six years at the network before making the step up to the big league with NBC.
Major Setbacks
Yet while Kotb’s career has gone from strength to strength, her personal life has often experienced major setbacks. In 1986 she lost her father Abel to a cardiac arrest. During a discussion in the documentary Dads on Today in 2020, Kotb revealed, “He taught us about hard work, like getting it done. And we all just believed that we can be anything and do anything.”
Unlucky In Love
Kotb has also been somewhat unlucky in love over the years. In 2012 she announced live on TV that her new liaison with lawyer Jay Blumenkopf was very much the real deal. He didn’t seem to agree, though, as within a few months the legal hotshot decided to break up with the Today star.
Surprising Divorce
This wasn’t the first time that Kotb had suffered relationship woes, either. In 2007 the news anchor began divorce proceedings against tennis coach Burzis Kanga a little more than a year after they’d walked down the aisle. The quick break-up came as a surprise to many considering the pair were hardly strangers when they said “I do.”
Difficult Conditions
Speaking to RadarOnline in 2018, Kanga claimed that circumstances worked against the couple. “The divorce happened under difficult conditions,” he said. “Those were personal reasons for both of us.” The tennis coach also accepted some personal responsibility, adding, “In hindsight, there was a level of immaturity on my part, mistakes I made. It was unfortunate we were married for a short time. It’s a shame it transpired that way.”
Bad Timing
Yet Kanga doesn’t appear to harbor any ill feelings about tying the knot with Kotb. He gushed, “I will always cherish our memories. She is the epitome of class. I think the world of her. We had great memories together.” But for Kotb, the timing of her and Kanga’s split couldn’t have been much worse. You see, during the same year she filed for divorce, the broadcaster received some devastating news about her health.
Changed Program
While everything in Hoda Kotb’s life was already turning on its head, a routine visit to her doctor suddenly turned into a frightening diagnosis. While sitting in her NBC office speaking to an intern, her doctor called with life-changing news.
Interrupting News
Hoda wasn't expecting anything negative. In fact, she didn't even think of asking the intern to leave the room when the doctor called. In a matter of seconds, however, Hoda — now the host of a show called Your Total Health — lost her smile.
Audio Difficulties
Her doctor diagnosed her with breast cancer. The news was so shocking, Hoda was speechless after hanging up. The intern saw there was something wrong and decided to let herself out, but not before offering Hoda a hug. It was exactly what she needed at the time.
Silent Program
Although it was a difficult time, she decided to not tell anyone at work or any viewers at home. She even went as far as continuing to work at NBC while undergoing treatment as though nothing was wrong. That changed after a chance encounter on an airplane.
A Big Reveal
Hoda Kotb was aboard a plane when the stranger sitting beside her asked about a compression sleeve she was wearing. The journalist could have lied and said it was for muscle recovery, but she decided to reveal the true reason why she was wearing it.
Starting The Talk
Hoda explained to the man that the compression sleeve helped her on her road to recovery from breast cancer. She also added, "But I hope that’s not how you remember me." The stranger had a shocking reply.
Calling For Action
"Having cancer is part of you," the man said. His last words really moved Kotb to take action. It made her realize: "You can put your stuff deep in your pockets and take it to your grave or you can help someone."
Reaching The People
The man's words left such an impression on Hoda that she decided to do what she did every single day at work: start a conversation. And the best way to do that, she thought, was to get the NBC's Today Show involved.
Active Recovery
In groundbreaking television, Hoda let cameras follow her around as she battled hard against breast cancer. Her recovery was daunting, but she demystified the process, and let others get a peek at what to expect.
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