Arnold suffered a mini-stroke in Jan. 2022.
Tom Arnold is sharing an update on his health and family life.
ET's Kevin Frazier spoke to Arnold at the FUBAR premiere, where he shared how he's changed his lifestyle since suffering a mini-stroke last year.
"Oh, I changed it big. I got kids -- my kids Jack and Quinn are here. They're 10 and 7. And I realized, I better get in shape. I better do it. You know, Arnold's [Schwarzenegger] had some. He's a survivor too," Arnold shared.
Tom lost 75 pounds after the stroke, which came just two years after he suffered massive organ failure.
"I think as you get older, you've gotten through some stuff. And it was a great wake-up call for me. And knock on wood. I turn 65 next year, so I'll get Social Security. And I stop paying alimony the day I turn 65. A lot of great things about getting older," he quipped.
Jokes aside, Arnold said at the top of the list are his kids, who he shares with ex-wife, Ashley Groussman, adding that he's lucky to be a father.
Arnold continued, "But mostly it's every day with my kids. Every day you wake up, and to also think, this is not unlimited. Like, I am 64, my kids are very young. So, each day, you got to try to make that your best day with those kids. It's money in the bank -- the memories, the stuff we do together. And I'm very lucky. I'm lucky to be a father. I'm very lucky to be alive."
Breaking down the scary incident, Arnold shared that it all went down when he was giving his kids a bath.
"The kids, with bath time, as you know, for kids, it's hard to get them in the bathtub, it's harder to get them out. So, I do a thing, I walk in the bathroom, turn to the bathroom door, I count to 10, and whoever gets out first wins. So, they're competitive. At this time, when I turned back around, my eye, it was like a curtain came out of my right eye. And I thought well, maybe I hit myself with the eyeball when I was counting," Arnold explained. "And then half of my vision came back, the upper half before I got the kids to bed. I thought, Well, that's fine.'"
He continued, "And I almost flew to Alaska the next day to shoot a pilot. But I thought, I'm gonna stop by the eye doctor on the way to the airport. And I did and you know, it's something nobody wants to hear. But he comes back, and shot some dye at me, and he said, 'You had a stroke.' I'm like, 'Oh, no, you gotta be kidding me,' because you always think, What will that ...?' So, you have to go to UCLA for 24 hours for stroke protocol."
Arnold said they did an extensive check-up, where they revealed that on the ten levels of stroke, his registered at just a one. All in all, Arnold said he felt very blessed to have it turn out as it did.
The Roseanne alum also credits his sobriety for his good health, celebrating five years of sobriety in July.
"I got sober years ago, which you have to do, and then to have the health stuff after that -- it would've only been worse if I had not been clean and sober. Everything would have been worse," He explained. "It would have been worse for my kids, my health stuff, because when you're clean and sober, you kind of feel your way around, like, 'Oh, this is how I got to react.' First of all, you know, 'I might be having a stroke,' you say that to yourself instead of like, 'That's an everyday thing, and then you kind of figure out well, 'What do I got to do to get back on my feet?' And so, you do things better."
As for his new Netflix comedy, FUBAR, Arnold said he couldn't be happier to be a part of Arnold Schwarzenegger's first foray into television.
"I'll tell you what, I was so grateful when I went to film with him because he's loving it. You know, you never know, he's but he's loving it. He's doing he's killing it. He's having a great time," Arnold said of his longtime friend and True Lies co-star. "When I went up to Toronto to film, they said somebody had just had COVID. And so, he had to film by himself for 12 days. 14-hour days, 12 days, all his action stuff. And that's a lot for anybody."
"But he but he loved it. You know, first thing he says is, 'Let's go for a bike ride.' I was like, 'Okay, do you have your motorcycle?' And he goes, 'No, bicycle.' I go, 'Oh my God.' And you can see some pictures he posted, but it's crazy. He gets right in the middle of traffic in downtown Toronto," he continued. "And I remember, when we rode motorcycles together, I'd always let him go first. You have to let him go first because he's gonna go first, and then I'd watch where the bumps are. When he hits a bump, I was like, 'Okay, I'm not gonna go there.' But he just seizes the day, man. He's an amazing human being."
FUBAR hits Netflix May 25.
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