Legendary New York sports radio host Mike Francesa underwent emergency gallbladder surgery on Wednesday. One day later, he explained what led to his being rushed to the hospital and undergoing the surgery.
Francesa detailed the process during The Mike Francesa Podcast on Thursday, explaining how he hadn’t felt right and was advised to go straight to the hospital after telling his symptoms to multiple friends in the medical community on Tuesday night.
“Last week, I came back from golf. My wife said, ‘You don’t look good,'” Francesa said. “I said, ‘I feel alright.’ The next day, when I got up, she said, ‘I don’t like the way your eyes look.’ I said, ‘I’m alright.’ And then about two days later, I said to her, ‘You know, I’m a little tired today.’ You know, knock on wood, I had felt great for the last couple of years.”
“Well, Monday afternoon, I ate; I had lunch,” Francesa continued. “And after lunch, I just had this terrible indigestion. So, I didn’t eat anything. Tuesday morning, I didn’t eat anything. And it had gotten worse. By about five o’clock on Tuesday evening; all I did was lie around on Tuesday; I wanted to see the [New York Yankees] game; around five o’clock, I got worried because I was in so much pain.
“I called my internist in the city, who’s a prominent internist, Mike Cantor, and I said, ‘Doc, listen.’ I said, ‘Something’s wrong.’ And he said, ‘Explain to me what you’re feeling.’ I gave him what I felt… ‘But I want to stay around and watch the Yankees, so I’ll come to your office tomorrow morning about 7 a.m..’ He said, ‘No, you’ll go to the hospital right now.’ And I said, ‘Why?’ He goes, ‘I think your gallbladder’s gonna burst.’ And he said, ‘If it does, you’re gonna be in bad shape.’
“I got up, well, first I called Dr. Shlofmitz, who you’ve heard on the show before, who’s the head of cardiology at St. Francis. I live close to St. Francis… Dr. Shlofmitz is one of my best friends. He was on his way to London; he travels to Europe a lot. But, he said, ‘Get over there right now, and I’ll have doctors meet you at the door.’ Doctors were waiting for me when I got there. I got dressed in two minutes; [Rose Francesa] drove me over. I said, ‘Tell them I need to watch the Yankee game.’ They said, ‘We’ll take care of that.’
“When I got in there, they started arranging all kinds of tests. You know, they’ve got to find out what’s going on… They took tests, and they’d put me back in the room so I could see the Yankees. Then they’d take me back for tests. Around 2 a.m., they gave me a test that was just for the gallbladder… The test took over two hours. I was under one of those MRI things for like two hours.
“When I got out of it, I could tell by their reaction… I could tell it was not good. So, I got back to my room; I tried to watch the YES postgame. It was like four in the morning. And the doctor came in around six, and he said, ‘You’re getting surgery.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, tomorrow, right?’ And he said, ‘No, today. It’s got to come out today. It’s really bad.’
“I got it out yesterday. It was very much inflamed and very infected. I guess I had gallstones for a while, but they never showed up on any test. If it had burst, I would’ve died.”
Francesa noted that he’s still in pain from the surgery and is expected to be for about a week or so, but added, “I don’t feel anything like I felt yesterday.”
It’s great to hear that Francesa’s health issue was taken care of. Thankfully, he listened to the doctors instead of just staying home to watch the Yankees.
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.