Bret Michaels is one truly dedicated musician, but sometimes it is to the detriment of his own well being.
Such was the case last week when the singer was hospitalized on six different occasions and kept checking himself out so that he could play scheduled shows. Unfortunately, Michaels was doing it with a blood clot and an infection, risking his own life for the fans.
Michaels guitarist and friend, Pete Evick, wrote a long explanation of the situation last week and, now, Bret himself has gone on Facebook to explain his drive and health condition further:
I wanted to take a moment to sincerely thank everyone for their concern, prayers and well wishes, it meant the world to me. I also want to thank the several emergency rooms and their staff for the immediate attention and especially all those at Mercy hospital for their continued medical attention. Yesterday I got a complete check up and today I had some blood tests. This has been going on for several weeks and was extremely painful however, I want you all to know I have no death wish, rather quite the opposite, as I love life and am grateful for every second I get and every second chance I’ve had. No doubt, I appreciate your concern when you noticed that I didn’t look right and the truth is I didn’t, the combination of the pain, Intravenous marks on my arm from the IV and medication made some of you comment that I looked very sick, and I was but I felt I could play through it. I moved two shows around and thought I was well enough after the first operation and stent, however I got a blood clot as well as an infection which complicated the matter. I am fortunate that I work hard to keep my diabetes under control, however there is no doubt after 45 years of type 1 brittle diabetes my healing process is a little slower than a non diabetic, but I am not a lay around self pity type of guy. In fact, the second I can be out of the hospital and moving, I go, I admit, sometimes to soon. Its been brought to my attention that I tour more dates than almost anyone, well over 200 per year not including private engagements, PetSmart appearances and speaking engagements as well as personal travel. I feel blessed to be able to live out my passion and yes, I am taking all of your advice and starting to do some limited select engagements and make up dates through out the end the year and into early 2015 to make some serious health and life changes… At times my passion to play music is my blessing and my curse, however I have only been sick twice this year, both were while I was on tour so it was more publicly noticeable. Yes they were serious, but I have recovered fully from the first one last spring and have almost recovered from this recent kidney episode thanks to grace of god, good medical attention, all of your well wishes and a whole lot of fight left in me,I will continue to give all I can for as long as I can, and although I am still not 100% I feel good enough to continue performing.
Once again, a sincere thanks to all of you.
Bret
P.S. Again, I dont have a death wish, I just love playing music, It makes me feel good.
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