Eli Gold opens up on his health, when he anticipates returning to Alabama radio booth

His illness had left countless doctors stumped. And eventually, the hiccups that it caused were giving Eli Gold, Alabama radio announcer and a staple for Crimson Tide fans, trouble breathing.

They were incessant and, as anyone who’s had hiccups for an extended period can attest, miserable. But eventually, the spasm in his diaphragm helped doctors discover the cancer that Gold has been battling ever since.

“And finally, finally — you can laugh, it’s not funny but it’s humorous to some degree — I ended up with a terrible case of the hiccups. I was hiccuping and hiccuping to such a degree that I couldn’t — this was in December, middle to late December — I was hiccuping to such a degree, I couldn’t even catch my breath,” Gold said on WNSP in Alabama. “I mean, I was struggling to breath because I couldn’t get any breath because I was hiccuping. Well, the doctor who they brought in to figure this deal out with the hiccups is the one who stumbled upon what that was doing and why it was happening. And because of that, I was having — I had cancer. The hiccups in a roundabout way were caused by the cancer and they learned from that.”

Gold had missed the 2022 season with health issues that, until December of that year, were unidentified. Then, on Christmas Eve, he learned he had cancer. He announced this news to the public in early January.

And as Gold discussed his illness, treatment, and fledgling recovery, he made one thing clear: He plans to be back in the booth calling Alabama football this fall if his health allows.

“But there’s still work to be done. I’m not looking at A-Day as a return, that’s not going to happen a week from tomorrow, a week from Saturday rather. But I am, Lord willing and the creek don’t rise, I am planning to be back in time for the start of the regular season. I may show up with a walker and if that’s the case, done deal. There are tons of people who use walkers in this world. If I can get by with a cane, I’ll do that. Whatever it is,” Gold said.

Gold will be in need of a walking aid because one of the first major issues he encountered prior to getting the cancer diagnoses were his legs not working. As he described it, he was moving fine one day and went to bed to find that, when he woke up, he couldn’t move his legs.

They’re slightly better now, Gold said, to the point where he can walk without the support of a cane or walker. But he explained that having some aid is beneficial because if he falls, he doesn’t realistically have the strength to pick himself up.

The lack of locomotion in his legs was just one of the various challenges Gold endured. He spent roughly half the days of 2022 in various hospitals getting treatments, namely chemotherapy. He spent a handful of stints at in-patient treatment centers where he could monitored and cared for by nurses and doctors around the clock.

And, like so many people with cancer, he dealt with the loss of appetite from chemotherapy.

“I lost 140 pounds, something like that. I just had no interest in eating. I couldn’t keep anything down. I was sick. The doctors told Claudette, they told her a couple of times that I might not make it through the night. So I was a very sick boy,” Gold said.

At this point, Gold has one more chemotherapy treatment session remaining, scheduled for the week after the Alabama spring game.

From what he’s heard from his doctors, things are looking up. And if his doctors are content, Gold is content.

“But I do have just one more chemotherapy session to go and the doctors are really pleased, everybody’s excited and if the doctors are pleased, then I’m pleased,” Gold said. “I feel wonderful. I’ve had to do a lot.”