Celebrity gossip titan Perez Hilton has a message for his viewers, and it’s not about who’s kissing who or who’s looking fat.
It’s about flu meds. And taking them according to their instructions.
On his YouTube channel this week, the 48-year-old addressed the “crazy saga” that put him in the hospital for 21 days, explaining how a bout of the flu turned into a fight for his life at Southern Hills Hospital in Las Vegas.
He’d had the flu for about a week before he was hospitalized, he explained, and had been taking flu medication nearly the whole time.
“However — big but — I didn’t take any of my medication with food,” he said.
The infamous blogger said he never takes meds with food — though he would soon be made aware of how damaging that can be to the intestines.
First, he developed an ulcer.
Hilton didn’t specify which flu medication was the source of the problem. Antivirals like Tamiflu (oseltamivir), Relenza (zanamivir) and Xofluza (baloxavir marboxil) can all be taken with or without food, and none are known to commonly lead to stomach ulcers.
Decongestants also don’t generally carry a stomach ulcer risk either, but NSAIDs — anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen and naproxen that can be used to treat flu symptoms like headaches or body aches — are an ulcer risk.
Hilton’s ulcer led to perforation. UMass Memorial Health describes a perforated ulcer as a serious condition that requires immediate medical care, as it allows food and digestive juices to “leak out of the digestive tract.”
Possible complications related to a perforated ulcer include infection of the stomach lining and an infection in the bloodstream, or sepsis.
Sure enough, Hilton was admitted to the hospital with sepsis — “People die of sepsis,” he said weepily to the camera — after waking up in so much pain one morning that he couldn’t walk.
His first few days in the hospital were full of tests: X-ray, CT scan, ultrasound, repeat. The doctors couldn’t find the source of the perforation, and Hilton was terrified.
“There’s this hole inside of me, where is it? They couldn’t find it, couldn’t find it, couldn’t find it.”
Five days in, the medical team decided to perform a laparoscopic surgery — a minimally invasive technique that allows surgeons to insert a small camera and tools into the abdomen — desperate to get to the source of the infection.
More complications came to follow: Hilton had fluid on either side of his lungs that needed draining, and the original infection kept raging, putting strain on his heart and requiring heart medication.
By the two-week mark, Hilton had developed an all new infection just from being in the hospital, and he hadn’t eaten any solid foods. He’d had a tube inserted through his nose to his stomach to pump out “bile and infection,” and a foley catheter inserted into his bladder. And he hadn’t gotten a good night’s sleep since he was admitted.
But it was the third week that was the hardest, he said, because he just wanted to go home to his three young kids.
Finally back home and already making an appearance on YouTube, Hilton said he’s “still not 100%.”
He has a bag around his neck with all the antibacterial and antifungal medications that will be distributed to him intravenously for the next 10 days through a peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC line) inserted into his arm.
In the hospital, Hilton said he “saw God,” which is what saved him — or maybe it was just his mother, who he also said was there every single one of his 21 bedridden days.
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