Nelson Thomas Back Home After Foot Amputation, Recalls 'Hard 3 Days' in Hospital: 'I Don’t Know How I Feel'

‘The Challenge’ star had his foot amputated one year after he was involved in a serious car accident

Nelson Thomas is back home after getting his foot amputated.

On Thursday, the star of MTV's The Challenge posted a TikTok video sharing an update on how he’s doing after the life-changing surgery, admitting that he’s relieved to have left the hospital.

“At least they let me keep my good foot, right?” the 35-year-old said with a laugh.

“I’m home, thank God. It was a hard three days. The first two days I was in a lot of pain,” he said. “Walking into that hospital, I was very scared but I had my loved ones with me. I’m happy to be out the hospital, man. Being in that hospital really just… I just wasn’t me.”

Thomas admitted that he’s been “feeling good” now that he’s back home and in his own space — at one point he shows his mom by his side to help him heal.

“I have to elevate my leg for the next six weeks and I have to take a couple pills. I gotta make sure I’m moving it so it doesn’t get stiff,” the Are You the One? alum explained. “Trust me, it is weird. I still don’t know how I feel but right now, I know I’m home and I’m happy and that’s all that matters.

“I’m just gonna take it day by day and we’ll see how things go,” he said, telling his followers “Thank you for all the support.”

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Last month, Thomas spoke to PEOPLE about needing his foot amputated following his serious car accident in March 2023. The reality star was rescued from his flaming car in Austin, Texas, by Minnesota Vikings player K.J. Osborn and three other good Samaritans.

Thomas spent months in and out of the hospital and ended up with three plates and 22 screws in his foot following six surgeries. He traveled from California to Mexico to New York, trying stem cell therapy, electrical stimulation and traditional physical therapy. He beat the odds, starting to walk again at three months after being told it would take six.

By October, the MTV vet returned to the gym and started swimming again, but Thomas still found himself in pain. At that point, Thomas’ doctor informed him that he had a nonunion bone, which meant it wasn’t healing. He said the news broke him, learning that his months of dedicated work didn’t pay off.

“I closed my door, locked myself into a room and just was crying and screaming into my pillow and asking, ‘God, why me? What did I do to deserve this?’” he told PEOPLE. “You just start thinking about all the mistakes you've made in life and thinking that God is punishing you. All those demons that you put behind your head and you feel like you buried come alive.”

Related: Nelson Thomas Says 'I Blame Myself for Everything' After Car Accident That Led to Foot Amputation (Exclusive)

That same month, it came out that Thomas was charged with driving while intoxicated in the near-fatal March accident.

“When that article dropped in October, I broke again,” he recalled. “It was the worst time of my life. What sucked the most is that what I had to deal with is that, ‘Nelson, you caused this to yourself. He blessed you with this opportunity, and you slammed the door in your own face.’ Do you know how many times I got to look at myself in the mirror and I blame myself for everything?”

Thomas told PEOPLE that after therapy he’s finally come to terms with his injury and the situation.

“I'm at peace with it,” he said. “I've prayed about it. I've wrote in my journal, I've read books. I've done all my research that I can do. I've done everything I can to try to save my foot. There's a lot of people out there, even friends, they're calling me: ‘Nelson, you have a chance to keep your foot and look normal and walk around.’ But then you have to ask yourself, ‘What kind of quality of life do I want to live?’ “

“Everybody always tells people, ‘the light at the end of the tunnel,’ but nobody tells you how long the tunnel is. They don't tell you how dark it is or how hard it is,” Thomas said. “But I want to bring people in and show you, don't be ashamed because you're shedding tears. Crying is good. It's helped me a lot. I don't have all the answers for you right now, but I'm not hiding anything from nobody. This is who I am.”

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