‘It floored me’: Sir Elton John loses sight in one eye
Source: Good Morning America
Sir Elton John has “lost” the sight in his right eye, he says.
The Tiny Dancer hitmaker revealed in September he had spent the summer battling an infection and while he had “hope” he would be able to see properly again eventually, he was unable to work on new music because of the limitations with his vision.
“It’s been a while since I’ve done anything. I just have to get off my backside,” he told Good Morning America.
“I unfortunately lost my eyesight in my right eye in July because I had an infection [while] in the south of France.
“It’s been four months now since I haven’t been able to see. My left eye is not the greatest.
“There’s hope and encouragement that it will be OK, but I’m kind of stuck in the moment, because I can do something like this, but going into the studio and recording, I don’t know. Because I can’t see a lyric for start.”
The 77-year-old star – who has sons Zachary, 13, and 11-year-old Elijah with husband David Furnish – admitted he had been “floored” by the situation.
“We’re taking initiative to try and get it better. But at the moment, that’s really what I’m concentrating on. It’s never fortunate for anything like this to happen,” he said.
“It kinda floored me, and I can’t see anything. I can’t read anything, I can’t watch anything.”
Despite his health woes, the singer – who is the subject of an upcoming Disney+ documentary, Elton John: Never Too Late – still feels “lucky”.
“I’m so lucky. I’m the luckiest man in the world,” he said.
“I’m so proud of the documentary, I’m proud of my sons, I’m proud of my attitude toward myself and what’s going on. I’m just very lucky and very grateful.
“I am an iron man, because I’ve been through so much and come out the other side.”
Sir Elton revealed in September he had been left with “limited vision” in one eye due to the infection.
“Over the summer, I’ve been dealing with a severe eye infection that has unfortunately left me with only limited vision in one eye. I am healing, but it’s an extremely slow process and it will take some time before sight returns to the impacted eye,” he wrote in a lengthy post on Instagram.
“I am so grateful for the excellent team of doctors and nurses and my family, who have taken such good care of me over the last several weeks. I have been quietly spending the summer recuperating at home, and am feeling positive about the progress I have made in my healing and recovery thus far.”
More recently, he revealed he had changed his diet to help control his blood sugar levels after being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in the early 2000s.
“I can have an apple, I can eat a bit of melon. As long as you’re sensible about it, it doesn’t shoot your blood sugar up. But what I crave is chocolate and ice-cream – I can’t have any ice-cream,” he said.
He also revealed that his dream meal would be full of sugar-filled desserts.
“If I had a death row meal, it wouldn’t contain anything except sweets, because I can’t eat them now. So, I’d have ice-cream, doughnuts, apple pie, rhubarb crumble,” he said.
Sir Elton has also dealt with other health issues over the years, including having surgery for prostate cancer.
“I don’t have tonsils, adenoids or an appendix. I don’t have a prostate. I don’t have a right hip or a left knee or a right knee. In fact, the only thing left to me is my left hip. But I’m still here,” he said.
-with AAP
