Here is an update on Bret’s health from Tonic.com
Fans around the world — and here at Tonic — are praying for Bret Michaels, a longtime champion of diabetes research and awareness, who is fighting for his life after suffering a brain hemorrhage Thursday night.
bret_michaels.jpgBret Michaels, the former Poison front man, the star of VH!’s Rock of Love and a top contender on the current season of NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice 3, remains in critical condition after being rushed to an undisclosed hospital Thursday night due to a massive brain hemorrhage.
Michaels, 47, who had suffered excruciating headaches in the days before the hemorrhage, is under “intense observation,” as doctors run tests to determine the cause of the subarachnoid hemorrhage or bleeding at the base of his brain stem, PEOPLE.com reports. “It will be touch and go for the next few days while he is under intense observation,” a source told PEOPLE on Thursday.
Doctors are trying to determine if the hemorrhage was possibly the result of a recently performed emergency appendectomy, or complications from Michaels’ Type 1 Diabetes, which has plagued him since he was a child.
While some reports said that Michaels’ condition had improved in the days following the hemorrhage, his rep told PEOPLE.com Saturday, “There are several incorrect reports on Bret’s condition. Bret remains in critical condition at an undisclosed location. Further tests are being run and information will be updated in the coming days.”
The hemorrhage came ten days after he was rushed to a hospital for an emergency appendectomy on April 12 in San Antonio, Texas, just before he was supposed to perform at Sea World for his “Custom Built” solo tour. “After the fact, they told me that if I had gone onstage like I wanted to, it likely would have ruptured and I could have died,” he wrote on Fancast.com after the surgery.
He blogged on Fancast.com that the surgery took a lot out of him. “As I write this, I’m feeling pretty bad … to tell you the truth,” he wrote. “When you’re not planning on having a body part ripped out of you, it can be a shock to the system. While the doctors are amazing in San Antonio, there is just no way around the fact that getting your appendix out HURTS. I have a pretty good threshold for pain, but this one hurts.
“I don’t know how much longer I will be under medical supervision. I’ve spoken to several doctors and they all seem to be impressed with the condition I have been able to keep myself in as a juvenile diabetic. But a lot of extra care needs to be taken to make sure my body heals correctly. It’s no secret I love my kids, my life, and being on the road, so I want to make sure I do everything I can now to make sure I can continue that later. They say it can take four to six weeks to recover, but maybe longer for a diabetic.”
He wasn’t feeling much better the day before the hemorrhage. “I’m feeling right about in the middle right now on a scale of 1 to 10,” Michaels wrote on Fancast.com. “I’m not 100% yet … I have to get my blood sugar back in order, because it’s been all over the place because every day I’ve been real active and you’re not supposed to move around yet.”
bret_michaels_2.jpgA Fierce Champion of Diabetes Research and Awareness
As someone who has battled diabetes most of his life, Michaels has used his fame to raise money for diabetes research and to raise awareness about the disease. On the first episode of Apprentice, he raised $100,000 for the charity of his choice, The American Diabetes Association — more than any other celebrity on the show so far — when he led the men’s team to victory as its project manager. “What an amazing win,” he told The American Diabetes Association’s Diabetes Forecast afterward. “I was glad I wasn’t first to be fired. Most importantly, the whole purpose was to raise money for diabetes — not only awareness but for the charity. I think one of the biggest parts of diabetes — while we’re looking for a cure — is to help people who have already got it.”
Michaels has hosted and attended dozens of diabetes fundraisers during his career. Most recently, in October 2009, Michaels walked to find a cure as the honorary spokesman for the American Diabetes Association’s StepOut event at the South Street Seaport in New York City.
At the time, Michaels asked fans on Facebook to join him “in supporting this cause that is near and dear to all of our hearts here at Michaels Entertainment. As you may or may not know Bret has been diabetic since the age of six. This disease affects not only his life but so many others on a daily basis. Currently there is no cure.”
He told writer Bobbi Dempsey that he also likes to helps people with diabetes on a personal level. He told Dempsey that he likes to treats fans with diabetes to special backstage events and one-on-one meetings in which he talks to them about how he copes with life as a diabetic.
A Rock Star Father’s Love…and Concern
Finding a cure for diabetes and raising as much money as possible for research took on more importance than ever for Michaels when he learned on the April 11 episode of Apprentice (which was taped months earlier) that his 9-year-old daughter, Raine, had been diagnosed as borderline diabetic.
The news brought him to tears. “I literally found out while I was [filming it],” he told Diabetes Forecast. “It left me at a big fork in the road: As a responsible father, you leave [the show] then and there, but at same time I knew this was the whole purpose. The irony is I’m fighting to show people you can live a great, normal life with diabetes.”
Michaels, who is scheduled to receive an honorary “Father of the Year” award at the American Diabetes Association Gala in Los Angeles, (he is also dad to four-year-old Jorja Bleu) set the record straight about his daughter’s condition on Fancast after the episode aired.”People have been asking about my daughter Raine, and here’s the deal,” he wrote. “She has been diagnosed as borderline diabetic, which is symptomatic to leading to diabetes. She tested a few times positive for sugar or glucose in her urine and then they went in and did actual tests, other than just peeing on a stick. It happened to her when she was 3 and 4 and I thought it had gone away, but it happened again now at age 9. Her weight was changing; she lost a bunch of weight. I knew when I was going in to do ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ that something was up, and when I got the call, I just wasn’t mentally prepared to hear it. I thought they would just tell me that she’s a kid and her body is changing and it’s okay.
“She doesn’t need any shots yet. It’s just diet and pills for her now. This is how ironic that I’m on a show fighting to show people that if you are dealt the diabetes cards, you can deal with it. But when it’s your own child, it’s a completely different reaction. She was scared when she asked if she had to take a bunch of shots like me. That’s what got me. I told her, ‘Look. If you are, look at your dad. I’ve rocked it 41 years with diabetes. You’ll be okay.’ We got real positive about it. She’s on a strict diet and she’s an active kid anyway, but now she’s really watching her health. Hopefully she’ll never have a Type 1 diabetes. It makes me fight even harder on this show to help find a cure for this.”
