Dean Ambrose on Complications From Surgery: 'I Nearly Died'

When Dean Ambrose' busted triceps made headlines, early reports called for surgery and rehab that would have him miss only a handful of months. However, Ambrose missed nine months of action, and now we know why.

To put it short, things became complicated.

In an interview with The Monitor, Ambrose revealed he needed not one, but two surgeries to fix his triceps tendon. On top of an added surgery, Ambrose contracted a staph infection that he says nearly killed him

"It was just one nightmare after another. It was a pretty challenging period of time to go through. I ended up having two different surgeries. I had this MRSA, Staph infection. I nearly died. I was in the hospital for a week plugged up to this antibiotic drip thing and I was on all these antibiotics for months that make you puke and crap your pants. So it was a pretty rough time," he said.

Until now, Ambrose nor WWE have said a word about his injury and recovery. the news of him hitting the disabled list caught the wrestling world on their heels because there was little indication he was dealing with an injury. But according to Ambrose things were never that serious, until they were.

"My arm wasn't healing correctly and my triceps. It's kind of an indeterminate period where I initially hurt it. I thought it was, we call it Dusty elbows. It's a pretty typical wrestler thing. You just get this bursa sac of fluid on your elbow from banging it on the mat or whatever. I've had that dozens of times on both elbows. It usually just goes away. It was kind of disguised. By the time I finally went and got the first surgery, my triceps was already starting to atrophy and look weird. I wasn't able to flex my triceps for a really long time.

However, when it came time for surgery number one, something went awry.

And then the first surgery didn't really, something went wrong in the process. Probably due to that infection. It's kind of hard to say when that really even got in my body. This is a long answer to your question. But for a minute there, it was getting scary. By the time I got that second surgery, it was March, I think. My arm was so shrunken and skeletal that it was weird. I hadn't been able to move it or flex it in so long that I was starting to get scared I wasn't ever going to get it back. To go from not being able to eat my Froot Loops, to being able to get back in the ring and throw people around and throw punches and do everything back to normal, it was a very gratifying feeling," he said.

Ambrose is back now with a healthy arm and about 20lbs of new muscle. Per his story, 2018 appears to have been a year to forget. However, he'll have an opportunity to turn it all around this Sunday when he and Seth Rolins challenge for the Raw Tag Team Championships at Hell in a Cell.