Nick Cannon's health problems have turned his life upside down—from time in the hospital to having to step down from his radio show. Two months ago, Mariah Carey's husband was diagnosed with lupus nephritis, a potentially life-threatening auto-immune disease affecting his kidneys. Now, in recognition of Thursday’s World Kidney Day, the rapper and actor—who looks back to fighting form—opens up for the first time about his ailing health.
“I’m doing great,” Nick tells Access Hollywood. “I feel better than I’ve ever felt before and everybody’s like, ‘Are you okay?’ ‘Cause it’s like, I’m talking about my condition more but I feel better than ever.”
He admits his time in the hospital put a scare in him. “There was those times, obviously sitting in the hospital, when you’re alone and you’re thinking, ‘How did I get here?’” Nick recounted.

“But even though doctors and different people may have been talking about life threatening situations, it never really registered to me that I was gonna fall, it was like ‘Yo! You’re gonna get over this and you’re gonna be good.'”
It was back in January when Nick and his wife, Mariah Carey, first realized something was wrong while on a family vacation in Aspen.
“Everybody was under the weather, we were thinking, because of the altitude [and] it was cold. So I was actually trying to be super dad. Mariah kinda lost her voice ‘cause she had got a little sick. My kids—my son [Moroccan] had an ear infection. Both of them had runny noses. I was like, taking care of them the whole time and kinda ran myself into the ground and was like passed out for a whole day and Mariah was like, ‘You gotta go to the hospital yourself,’” Cannon said. “We thought maybe I caught something from the babies but we discovered it was something more serious.”

While he hasn't said anything about returning to work, fans will surely be relieved to see Nick up and about. Hopefully the America's Got Talent judge will be back on the grind soon.

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 (Photo: Joe Scarnici/WireImage)