Vlogbrothers cohost Hank Green, known for cofounding VidCon with his brother and collaborator John, shared Friday that he’s been diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of blood cell cancer.
In a video posted to the Vlogbrothers YouTube account Friday, Green alternated between telling the story of his diagnosis and explaining the ins and outs of Hodgkin lymphoma, which he said is “one of the most treatable cancers.”
“Good news, bad news. One, it’s cancer. It’s called lymphoma. It’s a cancer of the lymphatic system. And the good news is it’s something called Hodgkin’s lymphoma. It’s the most treatable, like, one of the most treatable cancers. It responds very well to treatment,” he said. “The goal is cure. The procedure to get there is fairly well known if unpleasant.”
Recounting the process, Green said he noticed that his lymph nodes were enlarged, so he went to the doctor and received an ultrasound and then a rushed biopsy, which signaled to him that something was wrong.
With his diagnosis, Green said he anticipates at least four months of chemotherapy, which he isn’t exactly looking forward to because he knows the process is “unpleasant,” but he is excited to start the journey.
“It seems likely that we caught mine early. I’m still waiting on a scan to sort of confirm that,” he said.
The American YouTuber requested that the vlogging community and Vlogbrothers subscribers don’t share unsolicited health and treatment advice since he already has people in his close circle to ask. In terms of content creation, he is not sure how frequent it will be once he starts chemotherapy, but he asked viewers to subscribe to his newsletter because he wants to have that accountability for writing. He also asked for movie, TV and video game recommendations with little to no emotion.
“Really dumb things that will not make you cry, could not make anyone cry because I’ve been told that I’m going to have some time to consume media and I desperately need to be distracted as you can tell. I’m fine, but I’m not fine,” he said. “And it sucks. Like, I know that this sucks most for me, but I also know that it sucks for everybody in this community. So I feel like apologizing but that would be stupid. So I’m not going to. But I think you know what I mean. I just want to recognize that it sucks.”
Watch Green’s full announcement in the video above.
