Patrick Swayze: Chemo Is "Hell on Wheels"

"I just love to work hard," the 56-year-old actor tells the New York Times in his first interview since his January diagnosis.

"I do find myself, at the end of the day, riding home sort of catching myself with a smile on my face," he added. "I'm proud of what I'm doing."

The actor has piled on 20 pounds over the past few months by relying on "muscle-building shakes," he said. Show staffers say he's only missed a day and a half of work.

"I'm still fine to work. I haven't changed - oh, I have changed, what am I saying?" Swayze admitted. "It's a battle zone I go though. Chemo, no matter how you cut it, is hell on wheels."

See photos of stars who beat cancer!

The actor says he thought he was suffering from a persistent case of indigestion while filming the show's pilot in December.

"Then all of a sudden real symptoms start showing up," he told the Times. "You see it in the mirror and you go: 'O.K., better go get checked out.'"

Swayze's reaction after the biopsy and the devastating diagnosis? "Hello, goodbye, welcome to my world."

Swayze has been leaning on his wife of 33 years, Lisa Niemi, for support in fighting the disease. Experts say pancreatic cancer only has a 5 percent five-year survival rate.

"How do you nurture a positive attitude when all the statistics say you're a dead man?" Swayze asked. "You go to work."

The actor says he hasn't accomplished everything he's set out to do yet.

"There is probably that little bird that flies through your insides and says, 'I sure would like to make a mark in life,'" he said. "I've made a pretty decent mark so far - nothing to scoff at. But it does make you think: Wait a minute. There's more I want to do. Lots more. Get on with it."

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