Oprah Winfrey is recovering from a bout of pneumonia following a trip overseas.
Appearing on pal Ellen DeGeneres's daytime show in America on Monday, the media mogul and actress revealed she thought she was battling a bad cold, but it became much worse.
After a trip to the emergency room she was diagnosed with pneumonia and prescribed antibiotics, but when her condition failed to improve she was urged to see a lung specialist, who gave her a scare.
"He puts a stethoscope here (over her heart) and I see the 'Oh s**t' face," she recalled. "It's like, 'Oh my, something's wrong with you,' and I can see it, and he didn't hide it.
"I said, 'I told you it sounds like a rattlesnake in there.' He said, 'You must immediately cancel everything.' I've never cancelled anything in my life. I work when I'm sick... He said, 'You can't fly anywhere for a month,' and then he had 18 vials of blood drawn and I thought, 'This must be serious,' because I saw his face."
The doctor followed up by calling the Selma star every day for a week to make sure she was using the inhaler he gave her "and taking the right antibiotics".
"When I walked in and I was better, he thanked me three times for getting better, and said, 'Can I have a hug?'" she added. "And I could tell he was like, 'Not on my watch is this going to happen.'"