Chuck Norris Left His Career for His Wife, Who Was Battling an Illness, and Nursed Her for 5 Months – Their Story

However, in 2017, the actor and his wife publicly shared the horrifying medical ordeal that changed their lives forever. That year, O’Kelly underwent routine MRI scans that required the use of a gadolinium-based contrast agent. At the time, she had no idea that this substance would lead to a nightmare.

“But when I went in for my first MRI, ideally, it would be nice to go in one time to the doctor for one scan,” O’Kelly recalled. “It was ordered with contrast…I didn’t know it at the time, but it was just called the contrast that I was going to be given.”

After the third MRI scan in eight days, she noticed something was terribly wrong. “It started out with this intense burning inside my body that I can’t describe…it’s like somebody’s poured acid on your tissues,” she said.

One night, around one in the morning, it got so bad that she had to wake Norris up. “I am a healthy woman. I mean, I’m the lady on the Total Gym infomercials next to him. I’ve been fit my whole life,” she explained during an interview.

[…] But I wake him up at one o’clock in the morning and I’m like, ‘There’s something terribly wrong with me. You’ve got to take me to the hospital right now,'” O’Kelly continued.

Norris immediately rushed her to the ER. But, as doctors tried to ease her pain with medication, her condition worsened. “This was a repeat cycle for five or six different ER visits within a very short period of time,” O’Kelly said.