Like his familiar radio call of a Washington Capitals’ goal, the following phrase can perfectly sum up the last three months for John Walton: “Good morning, good afternoon, and good night” to summer.
In late July, the longtime voice of the Capitals was diagnosed with colon cancer, and last month, he underwent a 10-hour surgical procedure to remove 8-10 inches of his colon.
“I’m happy to say that after the operation, that I am cancer-free,” Walton said. “I don’t need any chemotherapy, which is something I was pretty sure that I was going to need.”
Like many, Walton said it took a lot to reveal his cancer via social media in late August. He stressed the universal theme of the importance of getting checked.
“If you’re a man or woman over the age of 45, you need to do the same thing,” Walton said. “I’m 51, and I probably waited a little too long, and thankfully, I was able to catch things in time.”
After the lengthy cancer surgery, Walton was trying to focus on his recovery and looking forward to hockey training camp starting in mid-September.
But not more than 24 hours after the surgery, an unexpected condition arose.
Walton found himself back in the emergency room where he needed the first of four procedures performed on his left leg and calf area, as another medical condition immediately came to light, he said.
“It’s called compartment syndrome, and there’s four compartments in your leg, and all four of mine were affected,” Walton said.
With compartment syndrome, pressure around the affected muscles restricts blood flow and prevents fresh oxygen and nutrients from reaching nerves, causing severe pain, according to the Cleveland Clinic. If the pressure continues to build, it can cause necrosis, or tissue death, resulting in permanent damage or even death.
In the span of seven days, Walton had a total of four surgeries to treat his leg.
“It was a bit of an emergency situation once the swelling had gotten to a point that it needed to be opened up, which was a second surgery,” Walton said. “A third (was) to close it up, but they couldn’t close up both sides, so then a fourth surgery (was) to close the second side.”
Along with recovering from cancer surgery, which caused abdominal pain and discomfort, Walton could barely walk after his leg procedures. He was advised to begin physical therapy as soon as possible to get his muscles active again.
After fighting through the two medical ailments, Walton was back to work and behind the mic of the first preseason game against Philadelphia Sunday afternoon, giving a play-bay-play radio call for the Capitals on WFED 1500 AM radio.
Walton said he’s on the road to recovery with his leg and plans to have a limited schedule before the regular season gets underway.
“There are sometimes complications you don’t expect, and I didn’t get dealt a very good hand on that one,” Walton said. “But if you were going to hand me a complication versus a clean pathology report, I think I’d take that 100 times out of 100.”
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