YouTuber Dr. Dan Bockmann Feels He's "Living a Much Purer Life" in His Final Days

Before he was diagnosed with cancer, Dr. Dan Bockmann was a vlogging chiropractor who helped his followers manage pain. But in 2021, he was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer when doctors found a “softball-sized” tumor in his rectum during a colonoscopy that had been postponed due to COVID-19 complications.

Throughout his journey, Dr. Dan, 54, shared his experience with cancer while continuing to share chiropractor tips and tricks on his YouTube channel, Dr. Dan Says .

Sadly, on June 22, 2024, Dr. Dan shared his “Last Transmission | Final Thoughts and Smiles!” video , or what he believes will be his final video as he nears cancer’s kiss of death in an update to his fans and followers.

Dr. Dan Bockmann updated his ‘Dr. Dan Says’ followers with a final video.

Before Dr. Dan’s “Last Transmission” video, he had only shared two videos in the previous five months, one titled “Best day in a while!” in February 2024 and another titled “New immunotherapy & seeing improvements!” in May 2024. But by June 2024, a few years after his initial 6-month maximum life expectancy, Dr. Dan shared what he believes will be his final video.

“Things are declining physically,” he shared. “This is end of life for me, is what I consider it. This, I think, may be my last transmission, which is a very weird, odd thing to say, but it could be. I don’t want it to be, obviously. I want to come back and say, ‘Oh, you know what? I had a big turnaround and now I feel great and things are changing.’ And if that happens, I will be the first to tell you.”

As he talked directly to the followers, Dr. Dan appreciated his surroundings and the weather, taking in every beautiful detail that life has to offer. He just got out of the hospital after a recent surgery for an abscess below his belly button, although his doctors don’t know what caused it, except that all the scarring, surgery, and chemo created cement-like bowels, which should be more fluid.

Dr. Dan shared in a health update that his health is rapidly declining.

“So real quick health update,” he said. “I did chemo and radiation for a year, then I took some time off and the tumors grew back, so we tried a drug trial because we already used all the big guns when it came to chemo, and that didn’t seem to work, so we switched to a different drug trial. These are experimental drugs in the immunotherapies, mostly.

And that didn’t seem to work either.

“So now I’m on hospice,” he revealed. “So what that means is that I have a fantastic hospice company … They did two back-to-back visits, spent hours with us, answering questions, just super nice, kind, empathetic people. So it’s been a hands-down wonderful experience with this company. You can see I haven’t really gained much weight, I’m still pretty skinny. Eating like a horse!”

But no matter what, it’s hard for Dr. Dan to keep weight on as he manages his cancer. He revealed he’s about 30 pounds under his normal weight. “We’ve stopped the trials,” he added. “I’m on no meds other than what are called palliative meds. So ‘palliative’ just means pain-relieving, comfort-providing drugs.”

He shared that he takes a microscopic dose of a synthetic opioid before bed and has had “the best sleep he’s ever had in his life,” so he’s not “piling up on pain meds.” He shared that his symptoms include difficulty walking and balancing. “All of this sounds really grim, I know,” he said. “A new development in my last scan shows that I have a new tumor in my adrenal gland this time, so I’ve got them all over at this point — rectum, liver, pancreas, adrenal gland, lungs, and I suspect in my cerebellum in my brain.”

He’s excited to write books and tackle his tumors, but his decline is “dictating” everything in his life from what he can do to how he can speak.

“Even just talking can be exhausting,” he shared. “But it’s part of life, you know? We all know birth is the beginning of life, and we just kind of gloss over the end of life, and when it comes, we’re shocked and scared and surprised, when in reality, it’s just a normal part of life.”

“I feel happy to have a legacy behind me of doing things I wanted to do, things that are important to me, things that I feel matter,” Dr. Dan said with optimism and appreciation for his 54-year lifetime.

Cancer is one heck of a beast, and whether or not this “Last Transmission” really is Dr. Dan’s final words, we’ll always appreciate his candor and kindness throughout his journey.