A month after undergoing emergency surgery for a blocked bowel, “Wheel of Fortune” host Pat Sajak spills the beans.
In his first interview since the operation, Sajak told “Good Morning America” that in the moments before the surgery, he thought he was going to die.
In November, the game show host began to endure “excruciating” agony while out for a morning stroll with his daughter. He was doubled over in pain hours later, about to enter surgery.
“I was lying on the bed in the fetal position,” he explained. “They try to treat your pain with numerous medications. And none of it – none of it – worked.”
Then, he said, his doctors gave him a drug that swept the pain from his mind.
“All of a sudden, I wasn’t thinking about the discomfort,” he explained. “I just got these amazing pastels and faced flowing out of it.”
“I could hear my wife and daughter talking in the background.” “They sounded a mile away but were right next to me,” he explained. “They were conversing with one another. And I recall thinking, not morbidly, “I guess this must be death.”
In that moment, he said, he was worried for his wife and daughter and felt sad that they would “have to deal with the aftermath.”
Of course, Sajak survived the procedure, and his worries about death were unfounded.
“It turns out that I was merely high,” he laughed.
Sajak’s procedure was “totally successful.”
He said doctors detected no underlying cause of the intestinal blockage. Therefore he doesn’t need to change his lifestyle.
“I’ve been feeling extremely terrific for several weeks,” Sajak explained. “I’ve been back in the studio doing shows. Even after spinning the wheel, nothing popped. So I think it’s OK.”
Sajak’s longstanding co-host, Vanna White, stepped in to fill his shoes while he was healing. Sajak joked in the interview that he’s worried she might nab his spot as the primary host.
“I discovered she enjoys hosting, and I’m a little nervous,” he admitted.
Despite his jokes, Sajak seems settled in his spot at “Wheel of Fortune.”
“I still have my wits about me,” he said. “They didn’t remove that, so I’ll be selling vowels for a long time.”