In addition to suffering from MS, Richard Cohen was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1999 (via ABC News). Although he went into remission after several surgeries, his cancer came back. "He went into himself like I've never seen," Meredith Vieira said. "I think he was a much angrier man. That second surgery carried with it a lot of stuff afterwards, the recovery period. He had to have a bag ... He felt humiliated."
However, after his second remission, Cohen changed his outlook and became a college lecturer, writing about his experiences, and "working for the MS Society." And despite the constant hardships they face as a couple, they found a secret weapon to help them cope: a sense of humor. "Even at the worst, right after the second colon cancer, we always found something to laugh about," Vieira said, adding, "I would kid him about. While you were in the hospital, I did purchase a black dress, just in case ... We just made jokes. And we still do. It's what gets you through."
Cohen detailed some of his life's regrets that his medical issues have taken from him in his book, Blindsided: Lifting a Life Above Illness: A Reluctant Memoir. "I will always regret that the kids never saw me as what I was," he wrote (via The New York Times), adding, "Parenthood suited me. No disease could touch that.”
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