Watch: Val Chmerkovskiy Shares Vertigo Diagnosis After Being Hospitalized During DWTS Tour
Perez Hilton is getting candid about a scary situation.
In a video message to his fans, the blogger detailed how he ended up in the hospital for three weeks, expressing hope that followers could learn from his mistake.
“My stupidity landed me in the hospital for 21 days and this is the most important video that I have ever shared,” Perez shared in a video posted to YouTube March 23. “It was the worst and best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
The 48-year-old (real name Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr.) said that he’d “had the flu for about a week” and began taking medication to get better.
“However—big but—I didn’t take any of my medication with food,” Perez added. “I never have.”
Unfortunately, the medications were extremely hard on his stomach and intestines. After a week of taking them on an empty stomach, he developed an ulcer, a perforation and sepsis, which led to him being admitted to the hospital with intense stomach pains.
“The first few days were a lot of pain and constant tests,” Perez recalled. “Because they couldn’t find where the perforation was.”
“Eventually, after five days, I ended up having laparoscopic surgery,” he said. “Surgery where they don’t cut you up, but they miraculously make these incisions.”
David Becker/Getty Images
The Boy With Pink Hair author explained that his surgeon used cameras “to literally flip around all of my organs, trying to find the perforation first. Then after flipping around all of my organs, washing me out ‘cause I had so much infection in there. So much infection.”
His lungs also had to be drained.
“My body just kept falling apart,” Perez added, saying that he was also put on heart medications because his “heart got out of control.”
Amid all of this, he also developed another infection during his hospital stay—which he noted is very common. It wasn’t until two weeks into his stay that he was able to eat normal food, with him emphasizing the toll his illness took on his body.
“It was such a slow process,” Perez shared. “Two weeks of just sickness and then another week of getting better before I was released. The last week was hell, because I had already been in the hospital two weeks by then.”
Perez Hilton/Instagram
Now that he is home, Perez explained he would continue receiving medication intravenously through a PICC line in his arm for 10 days, as it’s more effective than oral medication.
And of course, the best part of being home was being reunited with his children, Mario, 13, Mia, 10, and Mayte, 8.
“When I saw my kiddos—who had visited me—but when we got home we had the biggest, most cathartic group hug,” he recalled. “And tears and tears and tears. They were so worried for their dad.”
And while the hospitalization was incredibly difficult, it has prompted Perez to focus on taking better care of himself, getting more sleep and ensuring that he prioritizes time with his family.
“I hope this video can be a cautionary tale to some of you. Take medication with food. That’s very important,” he told his fans. “Take medication with food. Don’t have it on an empty stomach. Don’t end up like me in the hospital for 21 days.”
For more stars who have experienced their own health scares, keep reading.
Jason Mendez/Getty Images
Jason LaVeris/WireImage
Instagram/Suki Waterhouse
Paul Zimmerman/Shutterstock
Steph Chambers/NWSL via Getty Images
Chris Haston/WBTV via Getty Images
Photo by David Becker/Getty Images
Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images
Instagram / Christy Carlson Romano
Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images
Dave Sandford/NHLI via Getty Images
Instagram / Justin Bieber
Joe Maher/Getty Images
Trae Patton/NBCU Photo Bank
ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
Chris Haston/WBTV via Getty Images
Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for Vanity Fair
For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News App
