Paul Wight was told as a young adult that he would “probably be dead” by 45 without surgery
While speaking to High Performance, “The Big Show” commented on being diagnosed with acromegaly (a disorder that results in excess growth of certain parts of the human body) and needing to have surgery as a young adult…
“I was 19. I thought I was just gifted, because I had incredible endurance, and I ate whatever I wanted, and I could run all day, and I was strong and all that.
And then I went to Wichita State University, and the doctor there had worked at the Mayo Clinic and was familiar with it. He looked at my hands, and there’s different things—like the roof of my mouth is very high, and jawline, and sinuses, and stuff like that.
He says, ‘I think you have Acromegaly.’
I’m like, ‘What?’
And then within a week, I was at the Mayo Clinic and they’re telling me they’ve got to do this pituitary surgery.
I probably would have been—I’m lucky—I would have been big anyway. I would have been probably 6’7″, 6’8″ anyway, because my family’s big. So I got the benefits of it, but I didn’t have a lot of the trauma that a lot of people that get acromegaly go through, because they weren’t made to be bigger people. So they really got the bad end of the deal for the bone growth and other problems.
That was just a figure that I was told, because I almost didn’t get the surgery. And they were telling me, ‘Well, if you don’t get this surgery, you’ll probably be dead by the time you’re 45, because this will shut down, this will happen, this will happen.’
And I remember thinking like, ‘Ah, 45 is a long time away.’
I don’t know. I mean, I’m going to start my sophomore season at Wichita State. I don’t know. Maybe I should just not get the surgery.
And I remember my sister was very adamant at the time—’No, you’re getting the surgery.'”