Eamonn Holmes has given an update after his back operation that had a '20% risk of going wrong'.
The TV presenter has been battling chronic pain since 2020 and underwent the surgery last week. Eamonn has told how supportive his co-presenter Isabel Webster has been during recent times as he struggled with mobility.
Speaking on GB News from his home, the North Belfast man said: "This time last week I was lying on a slab in a hospital being operated on. So, I'm one week on from the operation.... It's early days and it will probably be about three weeks before they will know if it has been a success or not."
Read more: "It's a risk I'm willing to take": Eamonn Holmes to undergo operation
Speaking to Isabel, Eamonn added: "Your actions convinced me.... you my lovely friend, after doing a week's broadcasting on the Queen's funeral, and you are so professional and fantastic, what people won't know is where we were sitting was a bit of an assault course. When you do these broadcasts you've got to climb over scaffolding...
"[People] see the lovely view but to get to the view takes a lot and it took a lot out of me I have to say.
"On the last day, throughout the week we've a wonderful producer, a little pocket rocket called Sarah... She was brilliant and she's half my size and height and she was my crutch, literally my crutch, and it was quite embarrassing.
"Then on the last day, my lovely dear friend Isabel, had to walk me a fair distance... You're one of my dearest friends in life and you go above and beyond the call of duty. There is such a beautiful heart with you.
"It was humiliating for me. You took me through that crowd, forever and ever and ever, I stumbled a few times, and my leg gave way a few times and after that I was very humiliated really and I was humbled but you didn't make any issue of it.
"It was an issue for me... I've been living with this injury for 18 months. Four times surgeons have said to me, 'No, there's a 20% risk of this going wrong, we are not going to do it, let it heal itself', but it wasn't healing itself.
"And I found a surgeon who felt with neurosurgery he could make a pretty good attempt on this and he did.
"It just got to the stage Isabel where I thought, 'I want my life back'.
"You convinced me that day that I've got to try something."
The father-of-four added how he has been battling the pain for a year and a half.
"This isn't about me, this is about people who have lower back injuries and who have chronic pain. I've chronic pain, I've lived with chronic pain for 18 months and I still have chronic pain but we'll see what happens.
"Hopefully this will cure it. People keep thinking that this is about my hips, it's not about my hips, it's about disc regeneration in my lower back and impeding on my sciatic nerve, first of all my right leg then my left leg. And the surgery will hopefully put this right...
"It's debilitating and humiliating as well," the 62-year-old added.
The broadcaster also told how he doesn't know where his back issues stem from.
In his column for the Express ahead of the operation, Eamonn said: "This week a surgeon will cut into my back to hopefully relieve pressure on my sciatic nerves.
"It’s an operation that carries a 20 percent risk of going wrong, but such is the pain and restrictions that I have been suffering for the past 18 months, I’ve decided it is a risk I am willing to take.
"In fact, it’s a risk I want to take because, at this moment in time, nothing could seem worse than the constant pain that runs through my lower back and legs.
"Yet, in many ways, I am fortunate. However horrible the pain is at times, there are lots of other people out there who have it far worse than I do. I know this because they write to me every day on social media and tell me how they are getting on or, in a lot of cases, how much they are suffering.
"I’m sorry to say we have a pain epidemic in this country. Millions of people - regardless of their age and status - are literally crying out in pain."
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