Ric Flair Reveals How Bad His Health Deteriorated During Recent Scare, Where He's At Now
Ric Flair's health scare over the summer has given him a new perspective on life. He recently discussed the current state of his health in an interview with Busted Open Radio.
"I had ten days of life support, brother, that would wake anybody up," Flair said. "I'm just lucky I'm here, I just kind of take each day, I don't take anything for granted anymore. They gave me a 20 percent chance of living and somehow I made it through it."
Flair had an intestinal blockage which resulted in a part of his bowel being removed. After undergoing surgery, he was hospitalized for over a month. He had an external pacemaker inserted to help his heart beat normally. His heavy drinking was a root of his health issues. Flair detailed his road to recovery.
"When I got out I only weighed 206 pounds, I lost 43 pounds. I couldn't walk, I couldn't even twist the top off a Gatorade bottle. I could stand on my legs, but I couldn't walk, so I had to go to a rehab place for 20 days of physical rehab where they make you walk with a walker and then a cane and then you learn to walk by yourself," he said. "That took a while, and then I couldn't drive a car. I ate anything in the world, but couldn't gain any weight because all the food I was consuming was going towards repairing internal tissue that was ruined because when I went into the hospital my kidneys failed, I had respiratory heart failure and I had pneumonia all at the same time. Brother, I don't drink anymore... The doctor told me if I ever had a drink again, I wouldn't make it through another operation like that."
Flair is doing much better now, saying, "I'm back, I feel good, I weigh 220 now. Everything is normal, I have to go to the doctor every other week." He said he hasn't been able to exercise or do any physical activity, which has been an adjustment that is still taking time for him to accept. But Flair is in good spirits and living one day at a time.
"As far as lifting weights and stuff like that, nothing for probably another month," he said. "It's just a different way of life, I'm not used to living like this and I'm certainly not used to not having a drink by three o'clock (laughs). When I wasn't working I used to start at 11 in the morning, are you kidding me?"
You can check out the full interview on SiriusXM On-Demand.
Source: Busted Open Radio