Al Roker recalls first moments he knew something was wrong during recent health scare

What became a series of life-threatening medical emergencies that kept Al Roker out of the TODAY show studio for two months started fairly subtly.

In early November, the TODAY weatherman recalled in an interview with People, he felt out of breath, and his heart was racing while climbing the stairs at his home. The next day, he was vomiting and "doubled over in pain," Al said.

At first, Al's internist suspected he was dealing with an intestinal infection, People reported. But imaging revealed the true cause: blood clots, likely due to a previous COVID-19 infection, that had moved from Al's leg to his lungs.

He was rushed to the hospital, and doctors started treating his blood clots with blood thinners, but that revealed another problem. Al also had internal bleeding, which made it challenging to manage the clots with the usual course of treatment.

"It was this dance of trying to figure out what's more dangerous, the clots or what's going on with the bleeding," Al told People.

At that time, it wasn't clear exactly what was causing the internal bleeding. But, once Al was considered to be in stable condition, his doctors allowed him to go home for Thanksgiving. He did require "extremely close follow-up," though, Dr. Felice Schnoll-Sussman, Al's gastroenterologist, told People.

Al's situation became dire again just the next day. His wife, ABC News correspondent Deborah Roberts and their daughter Leila, had left the apartment to go shopping, but they'd only made it a few blocks when Al began to feel faint and was taken back to the hospital in an ambulance.

This time, Al had new signs of bleeding, People reported, and doctors planned to perform a two-hour surgery to find the source once and for all. It turned into a seven-hour surgery.

They discovered that Al had a tear in his duodenum, a part of the small intestine that connects to the stomach, which had been causing the bleeding. Schnoll-Sussman hadn't been able to see the tear previously with a standard endoscopy because Al's 2002 gastric bypass had affected his anatomy, People explained. At one point, Al had lost so much blood that he developed need blood transfusions.

During the surgery, Al's medical team repaired the tear and resctioned his colon. They also removed his gallbladder because it looked inflamed. From there, they had to wait and see how he would recover.

Roberts, recalled to People that she didn't tell her husband just how severe the situation really was. "If I had really known how bad it was I don't know if I could have kept up the positive attitude," Al said. "I didn't know they were crying out in the hall."

These days, Al is focusing on taking it easy and doing physical therapy to rebuild the muscle mass that he lost while stuck in the hospital. He's reflecting on the family and tight-knit community that helped him get through it all, and he's grateful to be back at work and home.

"Home is where your family is. It's where you thrive," Al said. "That's the best medicine I could get."

This article was originally published on TODAY.com