R&B singer Muni Long opens up about having a double lung transplant after being told she only has one week left to live.
Long, 37, said he fell ill and was diagnosed with pneumonia while performing Brandy again Monica‘s The Boy Is Mine Tour last year.
“The road is hard, even if you have good health. I shouldn’t have taken that trip, but there was a lot going on in my life when I had to do it,” explained Long, who suffers from lupus, during his appearance on Tuesday, June 23. Good Morning America.
Long said he took a short break from the trip but returned later. That’s when he started to feel bad.
“I think maybe five or six times … I couldn’t even get out of bed to call my stage time, and the last show, I didn’t make it,” he said. “I was only able to do two songs and my band and my family were like, ‘You just need to come home and rest.’
The “Hrs and Hrs” singer said he woke up in the hospital after Thanksgiving, where doctors told him his lungs needed to be replaced.
“I knew for a long time that something was wrong … every day I was like spitting into cups and coughing all the time,” he said, adding that he was “huffing and puffing like I just ran a marathon.”
“[The doctors were] like you need a transplant, and I’m like, ‘Well, it sounds like you have a … like how long do I have to live?’ they went and said: ‘A week.’ The jaw dropped. They’re like, ‘Hey, this is not a joke. You need to choose. You can go to hospice or get these lungs.’”
Long, who has a young son, said he is now on the road to recovery, although he has yet to make it.
“I look at my son and I think, like, how much life I have to live, and I think the quality of life was starting, like, I won’t be able to sing if I’m not here,” she said.
“Me [am] six months after discharge. Tomorrow is my last appointment in all matters,” Long continued.[I’m] asymptomatic, no diseases, none of this, then I will have my voice checked in August because I had to have voice surgery.”
Long said he feels “good” and advises other people in the same situation to take care of themselves.
“If anyone is watching this, I can say that I think that a lot of my trauma came from holding on to everything, trying to bear the problems of everyone else, always being a strong friend, the one who has everything together,” she said. “I didn’t speak up for myself the way I should have.” [have]. Don’t put yourself in the welding machine for everyone. You need to focus on yourself. You need to pour into yourself. Don’t be afraid to say no. Rest if you need.”
“I was really facing death, and I thought, ‘Am I really serving myself the way I should? And the answer was no,'” Long added. “So this time I’m going to be a little selfish. I’m going to take care of myself first so I can take care of everyone else.”
