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Suze Orman shares health update 6 months after spinal cord surgery

The personal finance expert shared the latest update on her health nearly six months after undergoing surgery to remove a tumor from her spinal cord.
/ Source: TODAY

Suze Orman continues to work through obstacles in her ongoing recovery from surgery to remove a tumor from her spinal cord nearly six months ago.

The bestselling author and personal finance expert shared an update on her health on TODAY with Hoda & Jenna, along with her trademark financial advice as Americans begin receiving $600 stimulus checks this week.

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"Like I said, I'm OK. My left arm is still giving me a little trouble, but we'll work through it," she said. "You know what, after the operation they said it would be about 18 months, so we have about another year to go, so we'll see how it works."

Orman, 69, underwent a 12-hour surgery on July 23 after experiencing symptoms like being unable to walk up stairs and losing feeling in her right hand.

Doctors ordered three MRIs, including one of her brain, but she kept putting them off for nearly two months during the pandemic, which she said on TODAY in October was "the most vitally stupid mistake I could ever make in my life."

The tests found that 80% of her spinal cord was being cut off by a non-cancerous tumor, necessitating the surgery.

She later shared in October that she was having trouble with her arm as she recovers.

"My left arm still isn't what it should be," she said. "The nerves are responding now, so the left arm fires. It's like it's on fire the entire time. It's really still difficult for me to use my neck. I still can't go too much forward or too much back because they took out two vertebrae and put in a titanium stint or whatever they did there."

However, she has retained her positive outlook despite the hurdles she has dealt with since the surgery.

"I'm feeling pretty good given the situation," she said Monday.

While Orman's specialty is helping people build personal wealth, save money and get out of debt, she reiterated that none of that can happen if you don't take care of your health.

"Health and wealth really are one," she said. "Most people who claim bankruptcy today claim it because of medical bills, so health is probably equally if not more so important than wealth, believe it or not."

It's a good bet that Orman has also been as productive as ever during her recovery, given that she shared an interesting secret about her successful career.

"The 10 New York Times bestsellers that I have written were all written from my bed, just so you know," she said Monday.

"Wait, you can be productive while you're in bed?" Hoda asked.

"Obviously, 10 New York Times bestsellers, I'll take that," Orman said with a smile.