JACKSON - Sen. Robert "Bunky" Huggins says he'll return to Texas in a few weeks to start chemotherapy for a half-inch cancerous tumor doctors found Friday in one of his lungs.
But before then, the Greenwood Republican is undergoing three weeks of daily radiation treatment at Mississippi Baptist Medical Center in Jackson to follow up on surgery he had for leg cancer. He started the radiation Tuesday.
"Right now, we're doing radiation at Baptist Memorial in Jackson," he said. "As soon as we get through here, we'll be going back to Houston to begin chemotherapy."
Surgeons at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston last month removed Huggins' right thigh bone and replaced it with a steel rod.
The 63-year-old lawmaker relied on crutches to walk around the Capitol Tuesday, and said he was getting accustomed to his leg setting off metal detectors.
Huggins said doctors at M.D. Anderson in Houston found the cancerous tumor on the last test.
Despite his condition, Huggins said he has been in the office every morning since returning from Houston.
He said he's feeling well enough to work on constituents' requests for help with various state government agencies.
"I have a pocket full of notes," Huggins said with a smile.
""I feel great, I really do," Huggins said. "People still call, and we still have to get stuff done."
Huggins said he doesn't know if he'll start chemotherapy immediately after finishing radiation.
"It kind of drains you so much that you don't want to do everything at once," he said.
Huggins served in the state House from 1972-84 and has been in the Senate since 1984. He is a former Democrat who became a Republican several years ago. He's now chairman of the Senate Corrections Committee.
In a brief interview Tuesday, Huggins said he was not happy - but also not surprised - by an inmates' uprising two weeks ago at a privately run maximum security prison near Tutwiler.
"When they first started to put prisoners in Tallahatchie County, I was opposed to it because you can't have inmates far from home and have a stabilized management system," Huggins said.
He said prisoners generally are better behaved when they can be visited by relatives. The Tutwiler prison is housing about 120 inmates from Colorado, 690 from Hawaii and 40 from Tallahatchie County.
