Texas-based singer-songwriter Paul Cauthen shared a sobering update with fans on social media on Thursday (March 13): He’s been diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

“I will tour again. I will sing on stage again. I’m not done by any means,” he assured his supporters as he broke the news.

Cauthen explains that his diagnosis came after he left the road to focus on his health. He says that he was struggling with pneumonia on tour and “taking a bunch of steroids” to power through the shows.

But when he woke up one day and saw that he was “blue in my lips and white in my face,” he immediately flew home to focus on getting healthy. Part of that was going to a clinic for a full checkup, and there, the doctor gave him some surprising news.

“Great heart, lungs, liver’s great … but [the doctor] said ‘We do have this one little spot.’ What he called a ‘hot spot,'” Cauthen explains. “They found a mass in my right thyroid.”

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The singer was diagnosed with papillary carcinoma, which is the most common form of thyroid cancer.

• According to the Cleveland Clinic, papillary thyroid cancer accounts for about 80 percent of all cases of thyroid cancer. Most people with the disease receive their diagnosis when they are under 40.
• With treatment, the prognosis is generally excellent for this form of cancer. Papillary thyroid cancer is rarely fatal.
• Treatment commonly consists of surgery, as well as radioiodine therapy and radiation therapy. Chemotheraphy is not usually needed to treat thyroid cancer.

Cauthen has been open in the past about struggles with substance abuse, and he’s been arrested on drug charges in the past. But more recently, he’s made a commitment to getting healthy — a decision that he now says might have saved his life.

“I have had a lot of time to reflect and realize that life is short and precious,” he says.

“… I will keep on writing and keep on doing what I know I need to do,” Cauthen adds. “And I know that I’m a vessel onstage. And that God has me here for a reason. Had me go up to the Cooper Clinic and get all this checked out for a reason.”

“God bless you. Be kind of one another,” he said at the end of his message.