Mark Hoppus of the band Blink-182 has updated his health status on his social media accounts, and the news is good, with the singer/bassist saying that the chemotherapy treatments he had recently tweeted about undergoing have done their job.
“Just saw my oncologist and I’m cancer free!!” he wrote on Instagram and Twitter Wednesday. “Thank you God and universe and friends and family and everyone who sent support and kindness and love. Still have to get scanned every six months and it’ll take me until the end of the year to get back to normal but today is an amazing day and I feel so blessed. Can I get a W in the chat?”
Among those answering back were Ryan Tedder, who replied with 10 W’s, and Samantha Ronson, who wrote, “Fuck yes!!!! I don’t even know you and this made MY day!!! Awesome!!!”
ned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram/p/CUazfO6B3RX/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="13">A post shared by Mark Hoppus (@markhoppus)
Hoppus had been keeping fans up to date on developments. Six days earlier, he’d tweeted, “Walked three and a half miles, my energy and mood are better, and I find out next week if the chemo worked let’s fuckin GOOOOOO.”
A week ago, Hoppus posted a photo of hair beginning to grow back in on his recently bald scalp — white, much to his somewhat bemused surprise.
“I mean what the shit is this? Is my hair growing back white? If it does I wonder if I’ll look more like George Clooney or Doc Brown? I feel like this is still the cancery peach fuzz hair and maybe my normal hair will start growing again? It’s so strange to have hair growing back more on my head while my leg hair continues to fall out further and further down, now at the bottom of my shins. I’ve been in chemotherapy for five months and TODAY the hair on my shins decides it’s time to peace out? Cancer is weird.”
ned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram/p/CUDcYFyvsqF/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="13">A post shared by Mark Hoppus (@markhoppus)
In first revealing that he had cancer in June, Hoppus didn’t disclose what form of the disease he had, but in a Twitch session with fans in July, he got more specific.
“My classification is diffuse large B-cell lymphoma Stage 4-A, which means, as I understand it, it’s entered four different parts of my body,” Hoppus said in the July session. “I don’t know how exactly they determine the 4 part of it, but it’s entered enough parts of my body that I’m Stage 4,which I think is the highest that it goes. So, I’m Stage 4-A. … The cancer isn’t bone-related, it’s blood-related. My blood’s trying to kill me.” He described the symptoms of his treatment during that more fraught time. “The first chemo, I felt like I was a zombie that fell onto an electric fence and was just being shocked. The second round of chemo, I just felt very weak and tired. Really just like the worst flu ever. The third round of chemo, I started retching. Nauseous and that whole thing.”
Later in July, he’d demonstrated his upbeat spirit by taking to Twitch to play along with the 2005 Blink-182 song “Not Now,” saying, “Not only is this the first time that I’ve tried to play these songs in well over a year, this is the first time that I’ve felt well enough to play my bass since I was diagnosed.” After playing another song, “Anthem,” he said, “I give that one a 95%, for not playing for two years.”
His improved spirits had been evident even prior to getting his doctor’s good word. Earlier in the month, he tweeted out the Safari’s “Wipeout” and wrote, “When using a public restroom I loudly sing the intro to this song but instead of ‘wipeout’ I say ‘wiping’ and then I play the entire drum solo on the partition wall to the person in the stall next to me.”
