U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva says he's "feeling good" after undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatments for lung cancer and that he hopes to return to his Washington, D.C. office for work by early August.
In an interview with the Arizona Daily Star, the Democrat representing Tucson in Congress since 2003 said "I don't know" if he's fully recovered from the cancer.
He publicly disclosed his cancer diagnosis in early April, but didn't specify it was lung cancer until speaking to the Star late Tuesday afternoon.
"Right now from the docs, everything is good. They're working with me on physical therapy, to get me strong enough to go back to work," he said.
The cancer caused him to abandon a heavy cigarette smoking habit that had stretched back many decades — a habit that most medical experts have linked to lung cancer since the mid-1960s.
"No shit. One thing came out of this was good. I quit smoking," Grijalva said.
Rep. Raúl Grijalva
While he's had both chemotherapy and radiation treatments for the cancer, "it was mostly chemo," and "we stopped about a month ago," he said.
He declined to say when the treatments began, saying his doctors advised him to keep that information private.
Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz.
He's still in physical therapy — "the therapy is about getting my leg fully functional. I still need support for that," said Grijalva, adding that he personally doesn't know why he needs leg therapy after contracting lung cancer.
Grijalva disclosed his cancer diagnosis on April 2. He announced in a news release at the time that he had sought treatment a few weeks earlier for a persistent cough. From that, he first leaned he had pneumonia.
"Further testing and imaging" revealed he had cancer, he said at the time.
Now, "I can’t go 100 miles an hour. I do go 95," he told the Star.
Since his diagnosis, he has worked from home and responded to "everything that came in regarding policy issues," although his therapies kept him from being physically present at the office, Grijalva said.
"In terms of doing the job, we've taken positions on almost everything. You can see from my press releases that we're on top of stuff," he said.
A discussion with incumbent Democrat Raúl Grijalva
