After dealing with pain for some time Gifford, 70, visited a doctor who believed her pain stemmed from her spine.

“They had been looking for the problem in my spine,” she told Today. “They finally found out what it was, and by that time, I’d been in such agonizing pain.”

Once doctors figured out the source of her pain she was scheduled for a hip replacement.

“My doctor finished the surgery, came in to tell me it went beautifully, and then he said, ‘Kathie, how have you been existing all this time? [You had] some of the worst hips I’ve ever seen.’”

Since Gifford was off her walker in two days and stopped taking her medications in three days, she expected recovery to be “easy,” but it was far from a walk in the park.

She admitted to walking, climbing, “carrying books around,” and even playing with her grandchildren before her doctor said, “Kathie, no. You have got to realize that this is serious.”

“I have learned from this that you only can only do so much. You’re just human. You’re just human. And I’m so grateful,” she told People.

Gifford said her hips were “down to the nubs,” which her doctors explained was due to her active lifestyle. And though it led to a total hip replacement, Gifford said she doesn’t regret a thing.

“No, I was doing what God put me on this earth to do. Every year of it, I was doing what he called me to do.”