Whoopi Goldberg using a walker for sciatica following hospitalization, 'The View' absence

Whoopi Goldberg is offering a health update to fans after a weeklong absence from "The View."

"Yes, it's me. I'm back," Goldberg, 65, greeted viewers of the daytime talk show Tuesday. The host explained she was absent from the show while dealing with sciatica, which the Mayo Clinic defines as a "pain that radiates along the path of the sciatic nerve," which travels from the lower back through the hips and down the legs.

"It was like a bad boyfriend who came back to mess with me," Goldberg said. "There I was, trying to move my leg – impossible to do. It was really horrible, but I'm glad to be here."

At one point, co-host Joy Behar observed Goldberg looked well-rested, which Goldberg attributed to her stint "laying in a hospital room." She also held up a walker for viewers to see, noting that it "kind of freaked (her) out" to be using one at first.

"I didn't know that I needed it, and you know what? That first step with the walker – this is my new best friend," Goldberg said. "I am just gliding along. So that's what happened to me. I'm told that it comes out of nowhere."

Behar told Goldberg that she also struggled with sciatica in the past, and noted that it can be related to stress.

"I've turned into this little old Black lady," Goldberg concluded. "It's really strange."

In 2019, Goldberg was absent from "The View" for several weeks after she was hospitalized with pneumonia and sepsis, which she said brought her "very, very close to leaving the Earth."

"Good news: I didn't," she said in a video update in March 2019. "I am up and moving around, not as fast as I'd like to be. But I am OK, not dead."

A few months later, the host invited her doctors on the show to detail her harrowing experiences and urge others to take their health seriously.

Goldberg said she initially got a cough in November, but the illness lingered for months before she was rushed to the emergency room in February, unable to walk and barely to breathe.

"Her teeth were chattering, she was gasping for air," Dr. Jorge Rodriguez said, recalling the star's symptoms before her hospitalization. "I could barely understand Whoopi."

Rodriguez continued: "I tried not to sound scared. … I was afraid she wasn’t going to wake up because you don’t know if someone, when they give you those clues ― is she really now just tired or is she going to become unconscious and this is it?"

'I came very, very close' to death: Whoopi Goldberg 'OK' after battling pneumonia, sepsis

Pulmonologist Martin Greenberg said it was "all hands on deck" when Goldberg was admitted, revealing that she had a 30% chance of dying from her symptoms, including high fever, shortness of breath, rapid heart rate and low oxygen levels.

Goldberg said at the time she wanted to share her story in hopes of motivating others to be vigilant about their health, adding that, "It's OK to go to the doctor because you don't feel good."

"The crazy thing is people don't take (pneumonia) seriously," Goldberg said, acknowledging that she didn't initially. "I just (tried to) fight through it, and you can't do that. It will kill you."

She stressed: "Inactivity, not doing anything, not checking, will kill you."

Contributing: Cydney Henderson

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why was Whoopi Goldberg in the hospital? 'The View' host explains