Chris Jericho has shed more light on the illness that had put him in the hospital last year.
The latest episode of Talk Is Jericho featured Chris Jericho revealing why he’d been hospitalized and off of AEW programming after a December 2021 health scare.
During his Double Or Nothing media scrum, Jericho had mentioned that part of his physical transformation (and the Jericho Appreciation Society) was linked to his health issues, which he would explain at a later date. Speaking on the podcast, Jericho said he wanted to wait until things worked themselves out to a certain point before he shared details publicly. Jericho said that a pulmonary embolism is similar to a blood clot and he had several of them, but they are all gone as of now.
Jericho said he recalls feeling winded about a month before the hospitalization, noting that he felt winded during a concert. Jericho said he consulted his doctor at home, who said it could be blood clots and that they could test when he came home, but if he felt short of breath, he should go to the hospital.
Jericho noted that the venues he’d been performing in had a low roof and they were very hot in temperature due to drawing sell out crowds. He said that he once again experienced similar symptoms during a show in Chester, and his doctor advised him to go to the hospital. Jericho wanted to play through a show in Bournemouth and wait until the band got to London a few days later, but he felt ill during the Bournemouth gig and knew he had to take care of things.
“I remember saying, ‘I can’t do another show like this. We need to figure out what’s going on.’”
Jericho said Fozzy’s manager called a man named Luke Bell, who had put them in touch with a ‘Rock Doc’ that travels to the perform when they don’t have time to travel to the doctor. Jericho says they made it to London and the doctor took blood samples and scheduled a heart scan for him.
“I was really having problems walking. I’d be walking across the lobby here at the Hard Rock Hotel and it felt like I was walking up a mountain. Really, really bad,” Jericho said. “[I was] huffing, puffing, out of breath, something was really wrong. So we basically canceled the press date.”
Jericho said that a listening party got canceled due to COVID, then an appearance at a football (soccer) game was canceled as well. He then got a call from the Rock Doc who told him they got the blood test results back and he needed to go to the hospital immediately. Jericho said he experienced more symptoms as he entered the hospital, noting that he could barely walk in from the car and this was when he started to get scared. Jericho got a CT scan and learned he had a pulmonary embolism.
“What does that mean? It means your lungs are filled with blood clots and you are now staying in the hospital. They went and did an ultrasound and found there was evidence of a clot that had been in my throat. Now, if a clot gets in your throat, that’s getting into stroke territory, and the reason why these are so dangerous is if the blood clot breaks free and gets into your lungs, you can have some serious issues. If it breaks free and gets into your heart, you can have some serious issues. If it breaks free and gets to your brain, you can have serious issues,” Jericho said. “Don’t forget [actress] Glenne Headly [died from one], and I also found out that Roddy Piper essentially died of a pulmonary embolism as well, so this is some serious, serious shit here.”
Chris Jericho was put on blood thinners and kept in the hospital to make sure they worked, and close to being put on an oxygen tank if his levels dropped any lower. Jericho was ultimately put on oxygen due to his levels dropping, then he said the public announcement he made was another ordeal because of the lack of information available and everyone’s general concern for him.
Once he was released from the hospital, Jericho was advised not to sing for a bit, and he wasn’t allowed to fly home until they knew he was breathing properly. Once he was cleared to fly, he went home and worked it out with Tony Khan that he would remain off of television until Christmas.
Jericho continued to recuperate at home and he wasn’t sure if he could wrestle on the blood thinners, but he also learned that his visceral fat level, the fat that surrounds your organs, was too high. Jericho said the way to lose visceral fat was to lose body weight, so he went to a medical weight loss clinic for help.
“I went in there and I was 241 pounds. Now looking back, was I too big? Absolutely. Overweight? I guess. Ever out of shape cardio-wise? No. I never was blowing up or anything like that, but I had gained some weight after I worked with Kenny Omega at the Tokyo Dome, I was going through a ‘Bruiser Brody’ phase and I thought I’m not tall like Brody, but I can be bigger than all of these Japanese guys because the way things are, I’m one of the taller guys, everyone’s a little bit smaller, and the Japanese appreciate the bulkier physiques.’ [So I thought] ‘let me just get a little bit bulkier and beat the crap out of everyone, which is what I did. I had three Tokyo Dome main events, I just never lost the weight,” Chris Jericho said. “Then the pandemic happens and you don’t even realize it.”
Jericho wanted to lose ten pounds, and he ended up losing 11 the first week. He stuck with the diet and now weighs 209 pounds, down 32 pounds overall. Jericho says he eventually started taking a lower dose of blood thinners, and he also learned how to wrestle and schedule his medication, noting that bleeding wasn’t as much of a concern as hitting your head and hemorrhaging was. Jericho finally noted that during his research, he also learned that he had a “factor five” gene (a Factor V Leiden mutation that affects clotting factors in the blood) and might not have to be on blood thinners (he’s taking ELIQUIS) for the rest of his life.
Jericho explained how he had just started a program with Eddie Kingston and 2point0, but his own health and Kingston’s broken orbital bone really added to the story they had and allowed them to slow things down and get to where they are now.
Read More: Chris Jericho Discusses His Recent Body Transformation, How It Tied Into His On-Screen Storylines
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