Val Kilmer is wishing friends and fans a “Happy VALentine’s Day!!” (get it?) with a “Top Gun”-themed photo that reads, “Find Someone That Looks at You…The Way Maverick Looks at Iceman.”
The photo, which is posted on his Instagram page, shows Tom Cruise as Maverick looking skyward at the vapor trails left by Iceman, played by Kilmer in the original “Top Gun” movie.
Read MoreAfter a two-year battle with throat cancer, Kilmer has endured profound physical changes. He often wears a scarf in public to conceal what is believed to be a tracheostomy in his neck. While we can not comment on Kilmer’s case specifically, the procedure can severely limit a patient’s ability to speak.
Despite his health challenges, Kilmer’s creative life has flourished. His book project, “I’m Your Huckleberry” will be published in May. And his paintings — Kilmer works in enamel paint on metal — are often displayed in galleries. He hinted this week that more creative projects are in the works: “It's been a little while. There's just been so much work going on. All of which I can't wait to share,” he posted.
Dan Redman, founder of the Music Sound Collective, which Kilmer discussed in his post, shared his appreciation for Kilmer with his Instagram followers: “He even sent in some original paintings to help raise money for our mission to support musicians and artists!”
Val Kilmer’s Cancer Journey
Kilmer has been on a cancer journey for almost five years. In January 2015, he was hospitalized for what his spokesperson said were tests for a possible tumor. At the time, Kilmer denied having cancer, saying that, "I have not had a tumor, or a tumor operations [sic], or any operation. I had a complication where the best way to receive care was to stay under the watchful eye of the UCLA ICU." But his haggard appearance and concealing of his neck and throat when in public appeared to belie grave health concerns.
Then, in April 2017, Kilmer bravely revealed that he had a "healing of cancer.” It was later reported by The Hollywood Reporter that Kilmer had a "a procedure on his trachea has reduced his voice to a rasp and rendered him short of breath."
About Throat Cancer
There are a few types of throat cancer, and some kinds are quite curable.
Hopefully, if someone has throat cancer, it’s “just involved in the neck and in the lymph nodes because if that's the case, then we can use our treatments to cure the cancer," Dr. Jessica Geiger, a medical oncologist specializing in head and neck cancer at Cleveland Clinic Cancer Center, told SurvivorNet in an previous conversation.
"If the PET scan shows that the cancer has moved to the lungs or the liver, then our approach would not be to cure cancer but to treat it and to keep it under control,” she said.
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