After Health Scares, Cole Changes Breakneck Pace

October 21, 2008

By KELLEY L. CARTER

Oct. 19, 2008

RSS LOS ANGELES — Cole was worried she'd be forgettable.

Cole is on bed rest following a setback in her battle with Hepatitis C.

The singer had known for months that something wasn't quite right physically. It

wasn't until she was sprawled out on the floor of her New York hotel room last

month, barely breathing, that she was forced to figure out what was ailing her.

She was in the middle of a heavy schedule of appearances to promote her new

album, " Still Unforgettable, " which like 1991's " Unforgettable … With Love "

features a virtual duet ( " Walkin' My Baby Back Home " ) with her late father, Nat

King Cole.

After Cole, 58, checked into a hospital for tests, doctors told her she had

fluid in her lungs and 10 percent kidney function.

" I could have been dead, " the eight-time Grammy winner says, sitting in the

living room of her high rise dressed in charcoal gray slacks and a matching

sweater set, her hair cropped and her face made up. " The volume of work that

I've had before, I can't do it. Instead of 90-minute shows, maybe I'll only do

60. Instead of dancing around the stage, maybe I'll just walk elegantly. "

The most recent health scare came on the heels of her announcement in July that

she had been diagnosed with hepatitis C (a liver virus), probably the result of

years of intravenous heroin use in the '70s and '80s.

To treat it, she was receiving weekly injections of interferon (a drug also used

with cancer patients), which was rough on her body. She lost her appetite, hair

and 15 pounds. At the same time, she was finishing her album and gearing up for

a tour, later canceled.

Days after the album's release, she was told she needed dialysis three days a

week. Since getting out of the hospital, she's stopped taking interferon, but

the dialysis continues for now.

In more than three decades of friendship, says her former personal assistant

Benita Hill , Cole has never had worse than a head cold.

" thinks that she can't be defeated in anything, " Hill says. " Her

biggest disappointment is that she's going to have to slow down. "

Recommended Posts