Sarah Silverman announced yesterday on Facebook why she had been absent from the public eye for about a week. Suffering from a sore throat, she went to the doctor, and discovered she actually had a “freak” case of epiglottitis. (The life-threatening condition is rare, especially for adults, and even rarer for adult women. It’s a result of a bacterial infection.)

Silverman, 45, then spent five days in the ICU, including going through surgery in a semi-conscious state because of the risk of fully anesthetizing her. She wrote:

“I thanked everyone at the ICU for my life, went home, and then slowly as the opiates faded away, remembered the trauma of the surgery & spent the first two days home kind of free-falling from the meds / lack of meds and the paralyzing realization that nothing matters. Luckily that was followed by the motivating revelation that nothing matters.”

In her Facebook post, among those she thanks is her “real-life hero” Michael (presumably referring to her boyfriend, the actor Michael Sheen), and her “amazing Sissies (blood & otherwise),” which would include actor Laura Silverman and rabbi and feminist activist Susan Silverman.

Even in a life-threatening, traumatic situation, Sarah Silverman was still Sarah Silverman. She left us with this anecdote:

“Also, when I first woke up and the breathing tube came out, I still couldn’t talk and they gave me a board of letters to communicate. My loved ones stood there, so curious what was going to be the first thing I had to say. They followed my finger, rapt, as I pointed from letter to letter until I finally spelled out, ‘Did you see “Hello My Name is Doris.”‘”

Best wishes on a full recovery, Sarah!

Image credit: Wikimedia

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