A month after "Wheel of Fortune" host Pat Sajak underwent emergency surgery for a blocked intestine, he's sharing all the painful details.
In his first interview since the operation, Sajak told "Good Morning America" that within the moments before the surgery, he thought he was getting to die.
The game show host said he began to experience "excruciating" pain while on a morning walk together with his daughter in November. Hours later, he was doubled over in pain, preparing to enter surgery.
"I was the fetal position, lying on the bed," he said. "They attempt to offer you various drugs for the pain. And none of it -- none -- was working."
Then, he said, his doctors gave him a drug that swept the pain from his mind.
"Suddenly, I wasn't brooding about the pain," he said. "I just had these beautiful pastels and wonderful faces beginning of it."
"In the background, I could hear my wife and daughter talking. It seemed like they were a mile off, but they were right next to me," he said. "They were lecture one another. and that i remember thinking, not during a morbid way, 'I think this must be death. This must be what death is like.'"
In that moment, he said, he was worried for his wife and daughter and felt sad that they might "have to affect the aftermath."
Of course, Sajak made it through the surgery and his fears of death went unmet.
"As it clothed , i used to be just high," he said, laughing.
A swift recovery
Sajak told "Good Morning America" that the surgery was "completely successful."
Doctors found no underlying explanation for the intestinal blockage, he said, so he doesn't need to make any lifestyle changes.
"I've actually felt ridiculously good for several weeks," Sajak said. "I've been back within the studio actually, doing shows. Even spinning the wheel and, you know, nothing has popped. So i feel it's OK."
While Sajak was recovering, his longtime co-host Vanna White stepped in to fill his shoes. Sajak joked within the interview that he's a touch worried she might nab his spot as main host.
"I did find she does like hosting and i am a touch nervous," he said.
Despite his jokes, though, 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 will be selling vowels for an extended time."