For a period of time, Tyler James Williams was on the brink of death.
The Abbott Elementary star opened up about his harrowing battle with Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammatory bowel disorder he didn’t know he had until 2017. In an interview with Men’s Health, Williams recalled how he struggled with gaining muscle prior to the diagnosis due to excruciating stomach pain that made it difficult to keep food down.
“I was really pushing my body to the limit,” shared Williams, who was also busy juggling roles on Criminal Minds and Detroit at the time. “By the time December hit, it just crashed. Everything shut down.”
When Williams sought treatment from a gastroenterologist, an X-ray showed that his bowels were severely inflamed and clogged with scar tissue from a Crohn’s disease flare-up. The damage forced Williams to undergo emergency surgery to remove six inches of lower intestine.
However, as Williams noted, his intestines were too weak to heal and ultimately perforated amid his recovery, resulting in him going septic and being rushed back into surgery. “The last thought I had was, ‘Holy s–t, this could be it,'” he remembered saying to himself. “‘If this is it, I’m not happy. I worked a lot. I did a lot of things. I didn’t enjoy any of this. This can’t be it.'”
