TLC
LPBW’s Matt Roloff and Caryn Chandler Detail His Hospitalization: ‘Kind of Traumatic’
Little People, Big World stars Matt Roloff and Caryn Chandler recalled the scary experience when he was hospitalized for esophagus problems.
“My esophagus has been acting up here and there. It’s been happening for a couple years. What happens is, it seems like it’s sort of closed off at times, not every meal but not really sure what brings it on,” Matt, 62, explained during the Tuesday, April 2, episode. “The esophagus gets mad very quickly and generates phlegm. It just bubbles up like a volcano until it comes out … it’s shocking. It’s very very dramatic.”
Doctors eventually recommended that the Roloff patriarch undergo a routine upper endoscopy. The procedure is intended to “examine the upper part of the digestive tract,” according to the Cleveland Clinic.
While the procedure wasn’t expected to be too complicated, Matt and Caryn, 56, explained that the surgery didn’t go as planned.
Caryn recalled that the experience was “kind of traumatic,” while Matt admitted he didn’t remember much.
“They had told me several hours because you got sedated and they were going to do the test and then I walked downstairs to get coffee and my cell phone rang. They were like, ‘He’s out, you can come back,’” she continued. “The doctor came in and he said there’s been a complication. We are concerned that we may have perforated his esophagus.”
After Matt noted there was “panic in the room,” Caryn shared she felt a “weird vibe” from the doctor.
The doctors then performed a test to determine if they perforated Matt’s esophagus wall. “They did the test and you drank the stuff and as you drank it I could see that it didn’t show a perforation,” Caryn, who announced her engagement to Matt in April 2023, explained. “But I could tell the doctor thought that could have happened.”
Following the test, the doctors assured Matt and Caryn that he would be OK. They explained that Matt had “a lot of damage from acid reflux” and explained to the couple that he had a normal sized esophagus instead of an average sized one for a little person.
“I feel like I went in all good and came out all bad,” Matt added, noting that he experienced a stomach ache once he got home.
Matt revealed he had undergone the surgery back in May 2023. “Last week was a bit rough … went in for what l thought was routine upper endoscopy to check out my esophagus,” the TLC personality captioned a photo of himself in a hospital bed via Instagram at the time.
After noting that the procedure didn’t “go as planned,” Matt jokingly said they found “some unexpected twists n turns leading down to the [stomach].”
“Good news is … I didn’t need the computer chip and monitor installed!” he said. “Scary news is more work to be done. Worst news is I had to take a few days off working and lay low.”
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