Richard Simmons shared an emotional post Tuesday about the moment he was diagnosed with skin cancer, a disturbing update that followed an apology for scaring fans with a post saying he was dying.
The fitness personality said he noticed a blemish under his eye in the mirror one day and decided to talk to a dermatologist after it wasn't resolved. The doctor scraped the area and examined the cells under a microscope, according to Simmons.
“He came back about 20 minutes later and said the C word. 'You have cancer,'” Simmons wrote. “I asked him what type of cancer it was and he said: Basel cell carcinoma. I told him to stop calling me dirty names. He laughed.”
Basal cell carcinoma is a form of skin cancer that appears most often in areas of the skin that are exposed to sunlight, according to Mayo Clinic. It is most often treated by removing all the cancer cells and rarely spreads or metastasizes.
Simmons said he went to a “cancer doctor,” Dr. Ralph Massey, who told him he would need a procedure that burned his skin to remove the cancer cells.
“There was no anesthesia involved, it had to be performed with only a small instrument,” Simons wrote. “When he started burning my skin, a tear fell down my cheek. You can't cry through this and he wiped away my tears.”
He said it took about 30 minutes, but he had to come back because not all the cells had been removed. Simons described the second procedure as more painful and “deeper,” he wrote.
Simmons posted a follow-up on Wednesday that the problem was resolved after a third procedure and that he doesn't even have a scar. He went on to say that his experience with cancer was “nothing” compared to his friends’ stories.
“I know some of you reading this have cancer or know someone in your life who has cancer,” he wrote on Wednesday. “Promise me you'll see your doctor and get a full examination.”
His posts do not provide details on when this will happen. NBC News has reached out to Simmons' representatives for additional details.
The revelation about Simmons' melanoma came just one day after he told fans he “had some news” and was dying.
“Oh, I can see your faces now. The truth is, we're all dying,” he wrote at the time. “Every day we live we get closer to our death.”
He later apologized to fans for upsetting them with the post.
“I'm not dying,” he explained. “It was a message about how to embrace each day we have. Sorry for the confusion.”
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