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Horn: Three broadcasters, including TNT's Ernie Johnson, provide us with the latest on their off-air life challenges

We've visited with folks who've shared heroic stories in recent years. Thanksgiving Week seemed an appropriate time to catch up.

Julie Dobbs

Julie Dobbs, host of FSSW's Stars magazine. Cancer survivor.
Julie Dobbs, host of FSSW's Stars magazine. Cancer survivor.(Courtesy)

Story: The Stars reporter at Fox Sports Southwest was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer in September 2013. It's relatively rare and rabidly aggressive.

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She was 28.

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Six months, eight chemotherapy sessions and handfuls of experimental drugs later, she was declared cancer free.

Then came a double mastectomy and the removal of 15 lymph nodes to further battle against the return of the cancer. Recovery was accompanied by excruciating pain.

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Through it all, Dobbs wrote a blog she called, "Sideline Survivor."

From her final entry eight months ago:

"I have taken care of the breast cancer thing for good HOPEFULLY, but ovarian cancer still scares the bejeezus out of me...My doctor has suggested a full hysterectomy (which basically equals forced menopause) for me by age 35 at the latest. So I have that to look forward to. If I was done having kids, I'd have that surgery immediately. So, I guess my surprise baby on the way coming earlier than expected was a good thing in more ways than one!!!"

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Update: Dobbs' surprise, her son Ryder, was born June 24. Husband Kelly Forbes is the Stars' video coach. He was at her side during the delivery.

Dobbs still visits her oncologist every three months. They have decided there is no need for further scans.

Forbes, as you might suspect, always travels with the team. On Tuesday, Dobbs was with the team in Buffalo. Thursday she was with them in Washington. Ryder stayed back in Dallas with his grandmother.

"I'm doing great," Dobbs said over the phone from Washington when asked about her health.

It doesn't hurt that Ryder, who is almost five months old, sleeps through the night.

Thanksgiving plans: The Stars will be home for three games Saturday through Friday. There no game on Thanksgiving Day but Dobbs expects there will be a Thursday practice.

"After that we'll probably go to Brookhaven (Country Club), where Kelly plays golf and I play tennis, for a small quiet family dinner," she said. "We have much to be thankful for."

Ed Werder

ESPN reporter and former SportsDay writer Ed Werder on the set of NFL Insiders.
ESPN reporter and former SportsDay writer Ed Werder on the set of NFL Insiders.(Joe Faraoni / Joe Faraoni)
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Story: The ESPN NFL insider never has been shy about using Twitter to update his 161,000 followers about his personal life. In particular, Werder, once a Dallas Morning News writer on the Cowboys beat, has found peace in relaying 140-character updates about the trials, tribulations and good times his daughter Christie and her husband Trey have experienced.

Christie , who is 32 now, has battled agonies caused by a brain tumor since she was 12. In June 2012, she married her beloved Trey Bomar. Two months later, she underwent 8½-hour post-honeymoon brain surgery.

In May 2014, doctors discovered Trey had colon cancer. It has since spread.

In late October, Werder tweeted: "Sending positivity to son-in-law Trey having 30th chemo infusion today..."

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The next day, Werder tweeted: "Son-in-law Trey had very tough day with chemo infusion, toughed it out and went to work, where he learned he earned a promotion from @Honda."

Werder has spent most of November away from family updates. He's tweeted mostly about more mundane issues such as Greg Hardy, Peyton Manning and Johnny Manziel.

Update: The Bomars moved into their dream house in southern Denton County in October. Christie is in her first year working fulltime as a teacher at a Denton high school Her father reports "she is doing fine."

Trey, 30, underwent his latest scans at Houston's MD Anderson Cancer Center this week.

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"He never complains," his father-in-law said.

The hash tag for a Werder Friday morning tweet prior to meeting with the doctor read #highanxiety.

In the afternoon, Werder texted the consultation "was OK."

Thanksgiving plans: Werder, as is custom, is scheduled to work the Cowboys game at AT&T Stadium on Thursday. The family's holiday meal will be Tuesday. Ed's wife, Jill, already has begun cooking.

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In addition to Trey and Christie, the Werder's son Brian, a police officer in suburban Fort Worth will be there with his fiancé Sarah.

New at the table this year will be Henry Werder, Brian and Sarah's five-month old son.

"We are most thankful that we can all be together for another Thanksgiving," Werder said.

Ernie Johnson

Ernie Johnson has been a host and play-by-play voice for Turner broadcastng.Turner broadcasting
Ernie Johnson has been a host and play-by-play voice for Turner broadcastng.Turner broadcasting
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He's the air traffic controller on TNT's NBA studio show. Sometimes he keeps Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O'Neal in perfect formation. Other times, he devilishly guides them into bang-up collisions.

At home he's far more careful.

Johnson and his wife, Cheryl, are the primary caregivers for their son Michael. He has muscular dystrophy. He's permanently attached to a ventilator. He's 27.

Michael, like four of the six Johnson children, is adopted. Cheryl brought him home from an orphanage in Romania back in 1991. About a year later Michael was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy. In 2001, Michael fell, broke a hip and has used a wheelchair ever since.

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A decade later Michael contracted pneumonia. Seven weeks after he entered the hospital, he went home to suburban Atlanta attached to the ventilator.

The Johnson's employ nighttime nurses for Michael. Ernie, who works mostly nights, and Cheryl are the day nurses. Sometimes their oldest children, Eric, 31, and Maggie, 28 and a new mom herself, lend a hand.

All four know how all the equipment works. They are proficient in suctioning Michael's lungs. They can interpret every beep the ventilator makes.

Michael's specific diagnosis is Duchenne muscular dystrophy. It only gets worse as time goes by. Doctors have told the Johnsons that statistics show their son might not make it to his 30s.

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Update: On the Thursday, the week before Thanksgiving, Ernie and Cheryl left Michael in the care of oldest son Eric. It was noon in Atlanta when Ernie took a phone call at the TNT studios in advance of the network's NBA doubleheader.

Michael's father reports his son is "doing well."

"He is maintaining," Johnson said. "Everything is good."

Thanksgiving plans: Used to be TNT had a Thanksgiving night doubleheader. That cut the Johnson family festivities short. Mercifully, the NBA has stopped the practice. Johnson will have his rare Thursday off during basketball season.

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For their annual feast, Ernie and Cheryl will cook up three turkeys - two fried - for a meal that will include about 20 family members, the newest of whom is six-month old Katie Ann, Maggie's daughter.

"Back when we had games on Thanksgiving I'd have to leave at about 3 o'clock," Johnson said. "Now we just gorge and collapse on the floor."

Johnson said his family, as always, has much for which to be thankful.

"If you focus your thoughts on what you do have and not what you don't have you will always be grateful," he said. "It is an attitude of gratitude."

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Cowboys small world

The Cowboys television universe is shrinking. See what 2-7 can do? After three Sunday night national broadcasts on NBC, one late national Sunday afternoon game on CBS, and three on Fox, Sunday's Cowboys at Miami Dolphins noon game is ticketed to be broadcast to 11 percent of the country.

That's down from the previous low, 16 percent for last week's Cowboys loss to Tampa Bay.

Cowboys-Dolphins on Fox is ticketed for Cowboys' friendly markets around Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico as well as Miami and West Palm Beach. Kevin Burkhardt and John Lynch, who called Cowboys-Tampa Bay, will be back in the booth.

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The big noon game on Fox is Washington at undefeated Carolina. It is headed to 66 percent of the country.

Around the Horn

Fox will offer up a 60- minute Thanksgiving documentary on Jordan Spieth's victory at the U.S. Open. It's scheduled for 3 p.m. The Cowboys host Carolina at 3:30 p.m. on CBS...Rangers home games will be streamed online next season through Fox Sports Go. You must subscribe to cable's Fox Sports Southwest for access...Gus Johnson and Joel Klatt call the Baylor-Oklahoma State football game for Fox Saturday at 7 p.m. At the same time Brad Nessler and Todd Blackledge have TCU at Oklahoma on ABC.

Twitter @bhorn55