The 'Superstore' actor admits to imagining the worst before a 'terrifying' spinal surgery, revealing he wrote a will on a makeshift piece of paper before the operation.
- July 3, 2021
AceShowbiz - Actor Ben Feldman was so concerned something would go wrong with his spinal surgery last year (20), he wrote his will on a napkin hours before going under the knife.
The "Superstore" and "Mad Men" star required an intensive operation to repair two discs in his neck which had caused him back pain for almost two decades, and just hearing how surgeons would go about the procedure made Feldman nervous.
"When I was 24, I was shooting a movie in Toronto, (I) was in like, a hotel gym and I was like, 'I feel a pain in my back.' But I'm 24, so obviously, that will go away soon. And then, it just never did. And then, I had all of these back problems forever," he shared on Sean Hayes' podcast "Hypochondriactor".
His wife, Michelle Mulitz, encouraged him to seek out expert help just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit and, although the spinal discs were considered to be in "really bad" shape, the specialist initially determined the problem didn't require treatment "right away" - as long as Feldman avoided any car accidents or risky sports.
He returned to the doctor for further examination last summer, and quickly discovered his condition now needed immediate surgery.
"The doctor goes, 'Oh, wait, never mind, this is immediate. Even your window for getting the surgery is closing.' And it was like, the fluid around my spinal cord... was just gone. It was just bone to cord," Feldman recalled.
The health update was so "horrifying," he felt the need to write his final wishes down on a makeshift piece of paper before his surgery in July 2020.
"I wrote a will on a napkin in a hotel," he shared. "I'm concerned I'm going to die, so I wrote a will."
The operation ended up being fairly straightforward for his medics to handle although Feldman was a little disappointed at how smoothly everything had gone.
"After I got the surgery, it was so easy that I was bummed because I wanted people to be like, 'Oh, my god, I'm so sorry, Ben, that must have been awful,' " he laughed.
"So I talk it up. I talked about the fear that I had, because I can't talk about the actual procedure, which was two hours and then a couple of drugs and then about two weeks of (recovery) watching Love Island U.K. in bed with my wife and then it was fine."
But Feldman did learn one big lesson from the brief health crisis. "My takeaway was, go to doctors more," he said. "Because if I had ignored this, and someone had bumped into me going skiing or whatever, I wouldn't be able to pee correctly anymore."
