Oprah Winfrey reveals ‘very serious’ pneumonia forced her to cancel work

The 65-year-old revealed she had to seek treatment from a specialist 
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Oprah Winfrey has revealed that she had to cancel work commitments after she was diagnosed with a “very serious” bout of pneumonia.

The chat show host, 65, told Ellen DeGeneres that she was “cleared yesterday” by a doctor after an extended illness.

“Pneumonia is nothing to play with, y’all,” she told the presenter during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres show.

“It is very serious. I was on antibiotics for a week and the antibiotics weren’t working. And then I go back for another CT scan and they go, ‘It’s actually worse. You should see a lung specialist.’

She went on to detail her first meeting with the specialist, whose facial expression “didn’t hide” the fact that “something [was] wrong.”

The doctor then told her that she “must immediately cancel everything,” despite the star tending to “work when [she is] sick,” and banned her from flying for a month.

“He called me every day to make sure I was using the inhaler and taking the right antibiotics, and when I walked in and I was better, he thanked me three times for getting better and said, ‘Can I have a hug?’” she continued, before joking that he seemed relieved by her recovery.

Health scare: The presenter implored viewers to value their health
EllenTube

“I could tell he was like, ‘Not on my watch is this going to happen,’” she said.

The philanthropist then implored DeGeneres’ studio audience to value their health.

“Don’t play with it,” she urged the crowd. “Get your flu shots and get your pneumonia shots. It’s nothing to play with. It takes people out.”

She concluded that the illness has “changed the way [she] look[s] at wellness.”

Pneumonia is a swelling of tissue in one or both lungs that is usually caused by bacterial infection.

It is thought to affect between 0.5 to one percent of adults each year, according to the NHS, and tends to be more common - and more serious - in the young and the elderly.

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