disclosure<\/a> by longtime sports anchor Mike Adamle that he has been diagnosed with dementia, which is believed to be the final stage of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), resulting from his years as a pro football player. Adamle will not be returning to NBC 5.<\/p>\nHere is the text of Stafford\u2019s note to NBC 5 staff:<\/strong><\/p>\nFirst the good news. They caught \"it\" early and my prognosis is very good. \"It\" is amyloidosis, a rare blood disorder where an abnormal protein (amyloid) is produced in bone marrow and can be deposited in organs. Before you read some scary stuff online, two facts: I'm an early stage 2 out of 4 and so far the effects are confined to my kidneys. I'm very lucky.<\/em>
\n\u00a0<\/em>
\nMy persistent wife, Lisa, gets the credit for the early diagnosis. She pushed me to pursue the cause of a slightly elevated protein level discovered during a physical (\"Relax. No big deal,\" I said. \"I feel fine and I don't have time for this.\") Lisa found a smart Chicago nephrologist who ordered a kidney biopsy. He sent the sample to the Mayo Clinic, which quickly identified amyloidosis, even though it's a tricky thing to diagnose. Again ... very lucky.<\/em><\/p>\nThe Mayo hematologists are among the best amyloid experts in the world. They say a bone marrow transplant using my own stem cells and chemotherapy is clearly the best option for me. Two-thirds of amyloid transplant patients go into remission and my doctors are confident I will be one of them.<\/em>
\n\u00a0<\/em>
\nI head to Minnesota first thing Friday and will be off the anchor desk for several months as I undergo this procedure, live in a sterile environment, rebuild my immune system and recover from the effects of chemo.<\/em>
\n\u00a0<\/em>
\nFor the record, I did not wait for the end of sweeps to schedule this. In fact, Dave [Doebler, president and general manager of NBC 5] and Frank [Whittaker] told me not to wait, but March 3 was the first opening on the Mayo schedule after the required medical tests. I thank the bosses for all their support, Allison [Rosati] for her prayers, [weatherman Brant] Miller for his humor and DJ [Dick Johnson] for covering while I went back and forth to Mayo.<\/em>
\n\u00a0<\/em>
\nI consider this early diagnosis a gift that left to my own devices I would not have received. I'm going to take full advantage of my good fortune and hit this head on with the most aggressive and proven treatment available.<\/em>
\n\u00a0<\/em>
\nI will announce this at the end of the 10:00 news tonight and share it on social media. As I go through the process, I will also post updates on Facebook. I can't wait to get ahead of this and back to the desk and all of you. Wish me luck!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rob Stafford, veteran broadcast journalist and principal news anchor at WMAQ-Channel 5, said Wednesday he will undergo a bone marrow transplant and chemotherapy to treat a rare blood disorder. \u201cMy prognosis is very good,\u201d he said. Stafford, 58, told colleagues at the NBC-owned station he will be treated at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota,... Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13550"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13550"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13554,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13550\/revisions\/13554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}