BOSTON — Sen. Edward Kennedy, midway through six weeks of radiation and chemotherapy treatments for brain cancer, is doing well aside from some fatigue, his wife says.
In an e-mail to family and friends sent Wednesday, Vicki Kennedy said her husband has been exercising each morning before heading to Boston for treatment at Massachusetts General Hospital. By afternoon, he’s back at his family’s compound in Hyannis Port.
The e-mail was obtained by The Associated Press on Monday from a Kennedy friend.
“The only side effect is fatigue, and that word has never been in Teddy’s vocabulary before,” Vicki Kennedy wrote. “But he’s learning to cope with it. As I have mentioned to many of you, he is tackling cancer with his trademark grit and determination, and he is doing everything he needs to do to regain his strength and health.”
The Massachusetts Democrat had a seizure at his Cape Cod home on May 17 and was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. He underwent surgery at Duke University Medical Center on June 2 and has been treated since in Boston.
After his morning treatments in Boston, Kennedy frequently goes sailing on his schooner “Mya,” his wife said.
“I have drawn the line at sailing in thunderstorms, but other than that, he’s out on the water just about every day. He’s making calls, staying in touch with his office staff and colleagues and still pushing all the issues he cares about,” Vicki Kennedy wrote.
One goal is a rejuvenated push for a federal universal health care bill whenever he is able to return to the Senate. Health care and pension issues have been among Kennedy’s priorities since he was elected in 1962.
The treatments have interfered with one tradition: Last week, the couple could not make their annual weeklong sailing trip to Sag Harbor, N.Y., at the eastern tip of Long Island, for their wedding anniversary. Their 16th anniversary was Thursday.
Instead, the Kennedys took a day trip off the coast of Hyannis Port on Nantucket Sound.
Vicki Kennedy says her husband describes his cancer “as a bear.” But she recalled his reputation as a political fighter.
“My guy’s a lion,” she wrote. “I’m betting on the lion.”
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