More than 10 years ago, Tarek El Moussa was hit with life-changing news: a cancer diagnosis. He later found out that he actually had two different forms of cancer, and he had to undergo surgeries and treatment for the disease.
His health troubles didn’t end there, though, as El Moussa dealt with an injury that left him in excruciating pain less than one year later. Scroll down for everything we know about the HGTV star’s health issues.
What was the lump in Tarek El Moussa’s neck?
In 2013, a viewer noticed a lump in El Moussa’s neck while watching an episode of Flip or Flop. This is ultimately what led the HGTV star to visit a doctor, which is how he received his cancer diagnosis.
“Going into Season 2 of Flip or Flop, I remember getting an eerie email from my production company saying they received an email from the network,” El Moussa explained in an Instagram video. “The email said, ‘I’m a registered nurse from Texas. I noticed there’s a lump on Tarek’s neck. This is not a joke. He needs to get it checked out.’”
El Moussa actually had already gone to his primary care doctor to have the lump looked at “a few times” but was just given nose spray and allergy medicine. So, he visited a different doctor, who performed a biopsy that came back “atypical.” At that point, El Moussa had “exploratory surgery,” which revealed his stage 3 thyroid cancer.
He then went back and looked at old medical records, which included an irregular testicle exam that hadn’t been addressed. “Almost as a joke, we said, ‘We should go get that checked,’” El Moussa shared. He had an ultrasound and found out he also had testicular cancer.
What cancer treatment did Tarek El Moussa have?
El Moussa had his “entire thyroid” removed during surgery. He also had his lymph nodes removed since the cancer had spread by the time it was discovered.
After the surgery, El Moussa had to have radioactive iodine therapy to kill the remaining cancer cells. While he was getting that treatment, he was not allowed to be around his then-wife, Christina Haack, and their young daughter, Taylor, as he was at risk of exposing them to the radiation.
Once he discovered he also had testicular cancer, El Moussa had another surgery to remove his testicle.
“The hormone issues afterward were the worst part,” he said in an online essay for Patient Resource. “My hormones were way out of whack, and it really affected my mental state. Trying to figure out the medications to replace my thyroid hormone was awful. I dealt with fatigue, brain fog, depression, mood swings, anxiety and a rapid heart rate every day.”
Is Tarek El Moussa in remission?
Yes, El Moussa is in remission today. “Fortunately, it’s been 10 years. I’m in remission from both cancers,” he confirmed in a Fox News Digital interview. “I’m thriving, the kids are thriving, and we made it.”
What other health issues does Tarek El Moussa have?
Less than a year after El Moussa finished treatment for his cancers, he suffered a back injury, slipping several discs and pinching his sciatic nerve. He opened up about the injury in his book Flip Your Life: How to Find Opportunity in Distress — in Real Estate, Business and Life.
El Moussa recalled dealing with the pain by taking “eight to 10” painkillers a day. He ended up having back surgery, which went fine, but resulted in a brutal recovery.
“The catheter they had inserted at the hospital caused my urethra to close up,” El Moussa wrote. “It should have been checked before I was sent home, but it wasn’t. My urethra had swollen shut.” He said his bladder nearly exploded since he wasn’t able to go to the bathroom, which resulted in a week-long hospital stay as he had the problem rectified and then recovered.
“For a year I could barely walk,” El Moussa told People. “And then after that I had that awful surgery with complications. So for four years, I just lived through hell.”
El Moussa also became addicted to steroids after being prescribed the testosterone during his cancer treatment. He said he would feel “like Superman” one minute, then be “seized by anger and fear” the next. “I would walk upstairs and close the door,” he said. “I would sit in front of my computer, thinking about nothing. More often than not, I’d sit there simply staring at the wall. I was a terrible husband, father, friend, and son.”