Stephen Colbert returns to TV show, recounts emergency surgery for ruptured appendix

Stephen Colbert is back to doing what he does best – hosting TV shows. Returning to The Late Show on Monday night, Stephen was welcomed with applause as he resumed hosting duties after he took several weeks off to recover from corrective surgery for a ruptured appendix. The celebrity host looked visibly weaker than ever as he experienced blood poisoning and shed a few pounds.

He took over the hosting duties after a gap of three weeks. Stephen Colbert detailed what it was like to be treated for a ruptured appendix and the whole recovery process. The host got to know of his condition as he wrapped up a shooting schedule. His last episode aired on November 22. Stephen began, “It is so lovely to see all of you. The last time I was sitting at this desk, which was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, I was in a heap of trouble. I was not aware of the amount of trouble I was in.”

He recounted how his symptoms crept up on him as he began filming his interview with David Letterman. While it was a “joy” to have Letterman in the house, Colbert noted, once he got home from the taping, he began to feel differently. “I didn’t know what was going on. I thought I might have caught something from Dave’s beard. I woke up the next morning just in abdominal agony, and I figured the pain would go away,” he said.

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As he wrapped work and rushed to the hospital, doctors told him that he had burst his organ and had to be treated immediately.He continued, “The pain was manageable. It only hurt when I moved — and when I didn’t. I held it together for two monologues and two-second acts and then a long interview with Bradley Cooper because there is no pain when you’re lost in those baby blues. But here’s the thing: the moment I was not prepared for — and I want to start by saying I love this man — was the cooking segment I did with José Andrés. At the end of it, he spontaneously grabbed me to dance with him afterward.”

“They don’t know why appendix goes bad … because they don’t know why they go good. They have no idea what it does. All they know is at some point it just turns around to the pancreas and says, ‘I bet I could kill this guy.'”

Colbert concluded by thanking the hospital staff, his family, those in Hollywood and beyond who sent their well-wishes, as well as “the people on this show, who truly went beyond the call of duty" to get him through that taping and propped him up.