Kathie Lee Gifford had no idea hip replacement surgery would be such a major operation.
THE former talk show host She believed that her extremely active lifestyle would help her body in the recovery process after the doctors’ operation, and that she thought the recovery would be “easy” after the surgery.
Gifford, 70, said People magazinethat this experience was “one of the most painful situations of my entire life.”
Kathie Lee Gifford has detailed the painful experience of hip replacement surgery. (Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images)
She added: “It’s been really difficult.”
After her surgery, Gifford “jumped off that stretcher after my operation,“But she soon realized that her body, unlike her mind, was not prepared for a slower change of pace.
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“I walked, I climbed, I walked, and my doctor said, ‘Kathie, no. You have to understand this is serious,'” she said.
Gifford said her active lifestyle was the reason she needed the surgery (Getty Images)
Gifford boasted that she “stopped using a walker in two days” and then stopped all her medications in three days, but “then I overdid it. I just overdid it because that’s who I am.”
“I started carrying books, signing and getting ready, and my the grandchildren came to visit us,” she says.
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“And you can’t. I learned from this that there’s not much you can do. You’re just a human being. You’re just a human being. And I’m very grateful for that.”
Kathie Lee Gifford is “grateful” for having time to slow down after surgery. (Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)
Her surgery was necessary because Gifford had noticed that her “hips were dropping to the tips,” which doctors explained was due to her incredibly active lifestyle.
“I learned from this that you can’t do everything. You’re just human. You’re just human. And I’m very grateful for that.”
“You climbed mountains, you made movies, you were on stage. You never took off your high heels, and you kept moving forward, and that’s why you’re going through what you’re going through,” she remembers the experts telling her.
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Despite this, Gifford does not regret the reason she needed surgery, nor the difficult recovery process.
Kathy Lee Gifford and Regis Philbin worked together for 15 years as co-hosts of two daytime talk shows. (Ron Galella Collection)
“Would I change it? No, I was doing what God put me on this earth to do. Every year I was doing what He called me to do,” she said.
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In the early 1980s, she began working as a correspondent for “Good Morning America,” and in 1985, she joined Regis Philbin to host “The Morning Show” on a local New York station. Three years later, the show went national as “Live! With Regis and Kathie Lee,” and she has become a household name ever since.
