"He has some really tough days,” she told WXYZ Detroit Jan. 22. “And as the chemo has been accumulating it gets a little tougher and more difficult.”
But despite the challenges, Melissa says her husband has maintained his sense of humor and joy.
"He has such a positive attitude, and you need that in order to really fight it,” she continued. “Every morning, if he's feeling up for it, we try to put on a song and do a little dance party with the dogs, because when you do feel good, you have to celebrate that too.”
Melissa also spoke to where she thinks her husband of over ten years draws his strength from.
"I think it's just innately in him,” she continued. “He has had a lot of loss in his life when it comes to having to deal with cancer. He lost his mother, his sister, his niece. His other sister had it.”
She added, "I think for him, he takes every stride and really pulls strength from seeing the women that were so close in his life to powering through it, and he just wants to honor them.”
“It's been kind of a roller coaster ride. Different effects,” he told his cohost Marla Sokoloff on the Jan. 10 episode of their Full House Rewind podcast. “The side effects have side effects and then you take a drug to counteract that and this and that.”
The 65-year-old continued, “So it's this constant cocktail where your body is in fight or flight mode, and you're just trying to adjust to, like, ‘Okay, how am I adjusting to steroids? How am I adjusting to the chemo cocktail? And then, how am I adjusting to all these other things?’”
But one of the things Dave says has been the most encouraging has been hearing from others who have navigated cancer.
(Photo by: Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)
“I have heard from so many people, Marla, who have been affected by cancer in their lives,” he told his cohost. “And, you know, the words of encouragement have, I think, really helped people.”
The comedian also spoke to part of the reason he’s sharing so much with the world.
“If I have to feel a little out of sorts for a few months, then, then so be it,” Dave explained. “But just being able to alert people that it's okay to get a colonoscopy or early screenings or a mammogram, it's really worth it.”
For more celebrities who have shared their experiences with cancer, keep reading.