Savannah Guthrie has revealed she’s currently on the mend following major eye surgery to fix her damaged retina, an injury she suffered after her three-year-old son Charley threw a toy train at her eye.
The 47-year-old Today show anchor gave viewers an update about her status on Wednesday evening following her morning surgery.
In an Instagram post she shared a sign one of her children created to hang on her bedroom door. The sign read: ‘Nobody can come into my mommy’s room.’
In recovery: Savannah Guthrie, 47, has revealed she’s currently on the mend following her major eye surgery to fix her damaged retina
Out of office: ‘Turns out I had to have surgery today because I had a massive tear in my retina and retina detachment,’ Savannah wrote on Instagram, sharing a sign on her bedroom
Stressful: The Today show anchor went into surgery on Wednesday morning and then later updated followers on her social channels in the evening
‘This is my “out of office” message. Turns out I had to have surgery today because I had a massive tear in my retina and retina detachment,’ Savannah wrote to her followers.
She added: ‘I am home resting for a while. Very grateful to my doctors, prayers of good friends and my husband @feldmike who has swooped in like a superhero.’
It was first revealed during the Today show on Wednesday by co-hosts Hoda Kotb and Craig Melvin that Savannah would be out due to needing eye surgery.
The co-hosts then shared a picture of Savannah on Thursday morning in a special chair to help keep her head down while the eye heals from surgery.
‘That’s kind of how Savannah has to stay. When you have that kind of surgery, you kind of have to be immobile,’ Hoda Kotb said on the show.
The image showed Savannah resting her entire face on a pillow placed on a chair. Her arms were then wrapped around her son, Charley, who was standing in front of the chair.
‘So that’s how she’s going to be for the next little bit,’ Hoda added.
It is unknown how long exactly Savannah will need to take off from the show in order to manage her recovery; an expert previously warned the Today show host that it could take up to three weeks before she is fully healed and ready to return to work.
Details: Craig Melvin and Hoda Kotb explained to Today show viewers on Wednesday why Savannah was not in the office for the day. They did not say when she would return
The culprit: The journalist suffered the injury two weeks back after her son, Charley, (pictured on his third birthday) threw a toy train at her eye
Pushing through: She only missed a few days of work and then tried to keep working during the injury. Savannah also underwent multiple laser treatments to fix her eye
Savannah has battled her eye injury since before Thanksgiving.
Initially her doctors hoped she would be able to avoid surgery by using laser treatments to fix the tear in her retina.
This encouraged Savannah to have an estimated five laser treatments in the last couple weeks to help her eye heal, but the problem only persisted.
Savannah missed a couple days of work during Thanksgiving week while her eye healed, but she still returned to the show to host the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on the holiday.
The following week continued with Savannah showing up to work and wearing glasses to help her eyes heal during the time.
‘For the last week the doctors have been like, “Hopefully we don’t have to have surgery,”‘ Savannah detailed to her co-hosts last week. ‘I did not Google it. ‘Cause I was like “I don’t need to look at a parade of horribles.”‘
She continued: ‘The vision is getting better every day, but I’m still blurry. When it first started it was a complete blur. I couldn’t see anything.’
Trouble: Doctors wanted to avoid surgery because of the lengthy recover, but it appears Charley’s throw (pictured is the train) damaged Savannah’s eye enough to need surgery
Explanation: Dr. Annie Negrin, an ophthalmologist, sat with Savannah and the rest of the Today show last week while describing how the eye surgery would be ‘major’ for the co-host
Yikes: It was not detailed to viewers when Savannah is expected to return to the Today show. She could be out for weeks while recovering from the surgery
Dr. Annie Negrin, an ophthalmologist, sat with Savannah and the rest of the Today show last week while describing how the eye surgery would be ‘major’ for the co-host.
‘You have to be face down maybe a week, maybe three weeks depending on the extent of it,’ Dr. Negrin said about the surgery.
How extensive the recovery is from the surgery is a big reason why doctors pushed for Savannah to first undergo laser treatments to fix the problem. Being forced to lie down on one’s stomach for multiple weeks wouldn’t be ideal for anyone, but it would especially prevent Savannah from hosting the Today show.
Craig and Hoda did not detail how long Savannah will be out after having the surgery, but she could be gone for weeks while recovering.
The mother of two, who also has a five-year-old daughter named Val, previously said Charley was unaware of how badly he hurt her when he threw the toy train and was actually proud of his impressive throw.
‘He’s two, so he doesn’t really know what he did, and of course, I wouldn’t want to make him feel bad about it,’ she said at the time. ‘I was FaceTiming with my mom to tell her, and he came running in and he said, “I did it! I did it!” He was very proud of himself.’