Howard Stern.Photo: Kevin Kane/Getty

Howard Stern

For almost a year,Howard Sternthought thathe probably had cancer.

His doctors had found a growth on his kidney, and they — and the longtime radio host — expected the worst.

Stern, 65, reveals in his new book,Howard Stern Comes Again, excerpted inThe Hollywood Reporter, that he spent much of 2016 and 2017 going back and forth for testing after his doctor discovered a low white blood cell count during a regular checkup.

They eventually discovered the growth and believed at first that there was a 90 percent chancethat it was cancerous.

“And now all I’m thinking is, ‘I’m going to die,’ ” Stern toldTHR. “And I’m scared sh–less.”

Howard Stern The Hollywood Reporter

After the procedure, Stern learned that the growth was in fact just a small, non-cancerous cyst. He was able to get back on the air five days later.

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Still, the experience left him with seven incisions and a painful recovery, and Stern is now questioning whether he wants tocontinue doing his showafter his contract expires in 2020.

“I’m at a place now where I am trying to figure out how to spend the rest of my life, however long that might be,” he said. But “It seems weird to me not to have this,” he added, referring to his broadcasting desk.

Howard Stern The Hollywood Reporter

Stern said that he’s “thinking about the hourglass, and the sand emptying,” but then again vacillated to wanting to stay in his job.

“To walk away from what I’m good at?” he said. “I don’t even know that I have it 100 percent right yet. And maybe there’s more to explore.”

source: people.com