Nick Cannon Returns to Work, Talks Health Scare

Wonderwall, Tuesday, January 17, 2012, 9:32am (PST)

Entertainment Tonight -- Nick Cannon returned to his New York radio show on Tuesday morning and talked about his kidney ailment that recently put him in the hospital.

Cannon, who spoke to radio shock jock Howard Stern upon the return to his morning show on 92.3 NOW FM, said the doctors originally thought he caught acute mountain sickness while vacationing in Aspen, Colo., over the holidays with his wife, Mariah Carey.

"They thought it was kidney stones ... then a kidney infection," the "America's Got Talent" host explained. He added, "They found out my kidneys weren't functioning well. We didn't want to say 'kidney failure' -- so people would think I've got to get new kidneys and Gary Coleman and all that stuff -- so we said 'mild kidney failure.'"

Cannon said that while he still has a couple more procedures to undergo, overall he's feeling like his old self again. "I'm good. I'm feeling 100 percent." But he did say the illness is causing him to look at slowing things down a bit. "Because of this situation, I know that I don't need to go so hard. It's more about just my way of living ... It's really about taking some time."

Stern, who'll be joining "America's Got Talent" as a judge, said he considered turning down the gig when he learned of Cannon's sickness. "When you got ill, I seriously debated not doing the show," he said. "You are an excellent host."

"I could not do your schedule and have the pressures of two young kids at home," Stern added, referring to Nick and Mariah Carey's 9-month-old twins, Moroccan and Monroe.

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