When Jerry Lewis hosted his annual Labor Day Telethon this year, his face and body were bloated and puffy from medication he takes for pulmonary fibrosis.
"I put on 54 pounds. I look like Orson Welles in heat," he told AP Radio recently.
But the 76-year-old comedian said the weight gain didn't stop him from appearing on the 21 1/2-hour fund-raiser for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
"I knew I'm going out there. What's my problem? I've got an 11-year-old who's dying. How do I think about how I look like? But my presence there can save him? Come on! If I was ever tested . . . to find out if I was real, I did it (on) Labor Day, folks."
Lewis had a bout with spinal meningitis two years ago and later was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis, an increase of fibrous tissue in the lungs.
He also suffered chronic back pain, so he had a battery-powered pulse generator implanted that delivers electronic impulses to his spinal cord to stop the pain.
Lewis controls the pain with a remote control.
"I raise the stimulation on it if the pain is bad. I take it down if I'm OK. I turn it off when I sleep. Thank God, I can do very well because I get residual value of having it on all day," he said.
Lewis, whose films include "The Bellboy" and "The Nutty Professor," couldn't resist adding: "And it opens my garage doors."