Al Roker was in high spirits on Monday as he called into “The Today Show” to talk to his colleagues on the NBC morning program. “It’s Monday, I’m home from the hospital, it’s just another day!” he quipped.
In the latest chapter of his medical saga, Roker underwent knee surgery on May 9, as People reports, and it’ll be a while until his joint is back to normal.
“You know, it’s stiff,” the 68-year-old said on Monday. “This one is a little more complicated because it’s what they call a revision. It was a replacement of a replacement, so they had to take stuff out [and] put new stuff in, so it was a bit of a bear.”
The weatherman gave his thanks to his doctor, Dr. Mayman, and the nurses and staff at New York’s Hospital for Special Surgery.
And since the operation, Roker has been “hanging out [and] not doing anything, which I know a lot of people find hard to believe, but in fact, that is the case.”
Specifically, Roker has been catching up on “The Mandalorian” and “Poker Face” and listening to his son, Nick, who’s back from school, using the Peloton exercise bike in the bedroom next door. (“I was hoping that recall might have slowed him down a little bit,” Roker quipped.)
He also got quality time with his wife, author and ABC News correspondent Deborah Roberts. “We were hoping — I was being wildly optimistic — that we were going to go to one of our [favorite restaurants], Daniel, for Mother’s Day, which is kind of our tradition, but that was not realistic,” he said. “So we ordered in some quiche and some stuff and just had a nice meal in the backyard here, which was nice, because it was a gorgeous day yesterday, so that was nice.”
Looking ahead, Roker said he’ll have a few months of doing physical rehab three days a week but he’s hoping to be back on “Today” sometime in the next two weeks. “We’ll just play it by ear every day,” he said. “And yes, I know, I’m not going to rush back before I have to.”
Roker had his left knee replaced in 2001 and his right replaced in 2016 according to Parade, and Today.com reports he had another knee operation this April. He had a back operation in 2005, emergency carpal tunnel surgery in 2018, and a hip replacement in 2019. He was treated for prostate cancer in 2020, and after suffering blood clots and internal bleeding following a COVID-19 battle last year, he had his colon resected and his gallbladder removed.
“Al never focuses on his pain,” co-star Hoda Kotb said on “Today” on Monday. “Because he knows that once you start thinking about it, people start asking about it, and then you start feeling it all over again. This is like the Roker philosophy, I think.”