9News host Peter Overton has given a revealing insight into the health scare that saw him absent from screens for several weeks.
In an interview uploaded to the 9News Sydney Instagram page, Overton spoke candidly about the incident which he claims “scared the living daylight out of me”.
“I took six weeks annual leave, and then my voice suddenly said, I’m on annual leave as well. I got very husky and raspy over the holidays and went to the GP. He sent me to an ENT surgeon, and suddenly the holiday turned into an operation in a Sydney hospital,” Overton said.
9News host Peter Overton detailing his health scare.
He continued: “I had a polyp, quite a large polyp on one of my vocal cords. They stick a camera up your nose and then down into your vocal cord, and then on a big screen, you see your vocal cords. And I saw this. It was like a big blister, a lump just hanging off the cord.
“I must admit, it scared the living daylights out of me. So I was operated on three days later under general and they lasered it off. Then I was in hospital for a day, and then home, and then no talking for over a week.”
The father-of-two joked that he was forced to communicate with his family by “banging on the table” and “writing emails”.
“They hated it,” he laughed adding, “I don’t blame them”.
The popular newsman then went on to detail the recovery process, which has seen him work with a speech pathologist who has got him “back to the point I’m at”.
“It’s been three weeks since the operation and I’m doing the news again. It is ready to go, but it’s managing it and building up endurance, and that’s what the speech pathologist has hammered into me,” he said.
Pictured: Peter Overton