‘General Hospital’ Star John J. York Talks “The Long Road Ahead” Of Him With His Cancer Treatment: “These Next 100 Days I Would Say Is A Rocky Terrain”

John J. York has provided another update on his health.

The General Hospital star revealed in September that he was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndromes and multiple smoldering myeloma — which are two cancers and blood and bone marrow disorders — in December 2022.

He spoke with People about the blood stem cell transplant process, which he started this week.

“There’s still a long road ahead, but these next 100 days I would say is rocky terrain,” he told the outlet.

York fortunately found a donor match on BeTheMatch.org. According to their website, individuals have a 29-79% chance of finding a donor outside of their family depending on their ethnic background. Both he and his donor endured numerous tests in order to make sure his body would adapt properly.

He explained that “the first week is an 8-day process of heavy-duty chemo, where [he’ll] probably lose [his] hair.”

“And that’s OK,” he added, noting that “there’s just all kinds of issues.”

“I could pass away,” he said. “I mean, maybe not from the chemo, but when the transplant starts. So after the eight days of these different chemo treatments that they’re doing, they’re basically wiping my body of what I’ve been living with in terms of my blood and DNA and all this stuff for my entire life. They’re wiping that clean and then they’re gonna put new stuff in me from the donor. And that’s going to be the new me.”

Following the blood stem cell transplant, he begins a “100-day process” of visiting the hospital daily in order to be tested.

“If tests come back after, let’s say after 30 days or 35, 40 days, tests are looking really good, that would be wonderful,” he shared. “Then they may say, ‘You don’t have to come in tomorrow, come in the next day. And then we’ll test after that.’”

He noted that he “would say the first probably 20 days [after the transplant] are the crucial days.”

“From the first day of the transplant, I’m guessing 14 to 20 days out, they’ll be able to tell with testing daily how I’m receiving and accepting the stem cells,” he continued.

Although he “thought [he] was done doing bone marrow biopsies,” he said that he has “like five bone marrow biopsies out there,” which he described as “just not [his] favorite things in the world to do

York, who is best known for his role as Mac Scorpio on the ABC soap opera, was remaining positive following his diagnosis, and seemed to maintain that attitude in his discussion with People.

“Well, you know, what can I do? There’s nothing I can do about it,” he highlighted. “I said it before: one day at a time.”