Will Friedle is sharing the details of an unexpected trip to the emergency room.
On a recent episode of his Pod Meets World podcast, the 50-year-old actor sat down with former co-stars Danielle Fishel and Rider Strong to talk about the sudden health scare.
“I woke up badly peeing blood,” Friedle said.
A Hospital Visit With an Unexpected ‘Boy Meets World’ Moment
Friedle said his wife, Susan Martens, noticed right away that he looked pale.
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“She looks at me, and she could tell; she’s like, ‘You had no color in your face,’ ” he recalled. “I was like, ‘Well, because I just peed it all away… I need to go to the hospital.’”
With all the hospital rooms taken, Friedle waited on a gurney in the hallway. Some of the staff recognized him from his years playing Eric Matthews on Boy Meets World, and one nurse broke out his character’s familiar “Feeny Call.”
“For some reason on this day in that hospital, I was more famous than I’ve ever been in my life,” he said.
“I’m lying on the gurney in the hallway, because you know all the rooms are taken; it was a packed day. And I’m lying in the hallway there, and one of the nurses comes up to me and does the ‘Feeny Call,’ ” Friedle recalled.
Fans will remember the call as Matthews’ drawn-out greeting to Mr. Feeny, played by William Daniels. Friedle heard it again while handing over his credit card to pay his copay.
The timing was a little surreal, but he appreciated the staff’s kindness. “They couldn’t have been sweeter there,” he said.
Waiting Out the Pain
Doctors eventually diagnosed Friedle with a kidney stone. These hard deposits (made from minerals and acid salts) form inside the kidneys and are notoriously painful to pass. According to the National Kidney Foundation, kidney stones send more than 500,000 patients to the emergency room every year.
Having an answer brought some peace of mind, but Friedle isn’t totally in the clear just yet. He explained that he now has to let the stone pass naturally.
“So I’ve got three days of just waiting to see,” he said. “I’m still in the midst of this thing. So if I get up and run out in the middle of the podcast … ”
