After a year marked by multiple surgeries, chronic pain and moments when she questioned whether she could keep going, Kathie Lee Gifford says she's finally getting her life back.The TV veteran is opening up about the "debilitating" health battle that once left her praying to "go home.""I wanted to die a few times," Gifford told People."I wasn't going to hurt myself.
I wasn't going to kill myself.I just didn't want to be here — as blessed as I am."Gifford also revealed that her pain was initially attributed to the wrong condition, saying she spent nearly a year being treated for a spinal issue before doctors discovered the real source of her discomfort.FORMER 'DWTS' HOST SAMANTHA HARRIS SURVIVED BREAST CANCER TWICE AFTER DOCTORS DISMISSED HER SYMPTOMSKathie Lee Gifford says chronic pain left her praying to "go home to Jesus" after multiple surgeries, a fractured hip, and broken bones took their toll.
(Jason Kempin/Getty Images)"Thank God, I finally had the hip surgery.I had been misdiagnosed.
And for a year they kept trying to treat my spine.And I said, 'I have no pain in my spine.
It's in my hip.I don't know how you missed that on an X-ray.'"The former "Today" host said the extent of the damage became clear only after her operation."The doctor, wonderful doctor here in Tennessee, in my post-op, the next day, he said, ‘Kathie, how were you existing? How were you existing with the most excruciating pain?’ He said, ‘That’s one of the worst hips I’ve ever seen.
In fact, you didn’t have one' … he said all it was was ashes, arthritic ash and little, teeny bone spurs.’"Gifford said she was initially misdiagnosed with a spinal issue.(Michael Tullberg/Getty Images)The 72-year-old opened up about her difficult recovery, revealing how one medical setback quickly snowballed."I feel like Mr.
Potato Head! One thing falls off and then another," she said.What began with a total hip replacement turned into an even longer recovery after Gifford fractured her h...