I was born in 1937, and I grew up listening to big band music, swing, and the music of the ’40s. I was hooked.
I’m a trumpet player and I have my own band, The Johnny Kleker Big Band. It’s about 18 to 20 pieces. We play all the hits, “In the Mood,” “A String of Pearls,” quite a bit of gospel, too. We have a free concert every third Saturday at Long Beach First Church of the Nazarene.
Last spring, we played at the opening ceremony of the City of Hope Seacliff outpatient cancer center in Huntington Beach.
In 2019, I was in the hospital for a kidney stone. And when they gave me a CT scan, they found out I had prostate cancer. And I also had cancer in both lungs. I was a little shocked. I didn’t have any pain or anything. No symptoms.
I went to City of Hope. And I didn’t really worry. I just let them take care of me. They gave me Lupron (hormone therapy) for my prostate and started me on infusions every three weeks for my lungs. I actually enjoyed the infusions. Gave me a chance to relax. Sometimes I’d nap for an hour. It was great.
In September, I got sick and I was in the hospital for seven days. They wanted to keep me longer, but I told my doctor, Nishan Tchekmedyian, “You’ve got to get me out of here. I have a concert I have to go to.”
I call him Nishan. He’s become more of my friend than just a doctor. He makes sure that everything comes out OK. They found out that the infusions had actually caused me to develop Type I diabetes. It’s a very rare side effect. Nishan was shocked when I developed the diabetes because he said it was less than a one percent chance. But I guess I’m a one percenter.
Since then, I’ve been doing pretty well in my health physically and mentally. I still have to take some pills for my prostate, but my lung cancer is stable. We’re just trying to get the insulin levels right for my diabetes. We haven’t quite figured that out perfectly yet. But they’re right on top of it.
I was in a number of bands, about three or four. And I’ve had to cut back on my playing and drop out of some of them. The trumpet is a very physical type of instrument. You have to be quite strong to play it. You have to control the air. So I had to cut back a bit, not as many solos. But I’m 87 years old, so I guess that’s OK.
I’ve given the problem to God, and I have faith that God’s allowing the doctors to heal me.
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