Muni Long Reveals She Was Given One Week

R&B singer Muni Long opened up about a double lung transplant after doctors told her she had just one week to live. Diagnosed with pneumonia while on Brandy and Monica’s The Boy Is Mine Tour, the 37-year-old—who lives with lupus—shared how her condition worsen

R&B singer Muni Long didn’t expect her year to pivot from touring to surgery—and she didn’t expect doctors to put a clock on her life.

Long, 37, said she began falling ill while performing on Brandy and Monica’s The Boy Is Mine Tour last year. She explained that she was diagnosed with pneumonia and, despite trying to push through, her health kept sliding. “The road is tough, even when you are healthy. I should have never taken that tour. but there was so much going on in my life where I had to do it. ” Long said during a Tuesday. June 23 appearance on Good Morning America.

She took a brief hiatus from the tour, then returned. That’s when she started feeling worse in a way she couldn’t ignore. “I think maybe about five or six dates in … I couldn’t even get out of the bed to make my call time for the stage. and the last show. I just barely made it. ” Long shared. “I was only able to do two songs and my my team and my family were like. ‘You just need to come home and rest.’”.

Long said she woke up in the hospital after Thanksgiving, where doctors told her her lungs needed to be replaced. She described knowing something was wrong for a long time. “I knew for a really long time that something was wrong … every day I’m like spitting in cups and coughing all the time. ” she said. She added that she was “huffing and puffing like I just ran a marathon.”.

Then came the moment that changed everything: the explanation that sounded impossible until it became urgent. Long said the doctors told her she needed a transplant, and she asked how long she had. “My jaw dropped. They’re kind of like, ‘Hey, this is not a joke. You need to make a choice. You can either go to hospice or you can get these lungs.’”.

Now, Long says she’s on the road to recovery, though she isn’t able to perform yet. “I look at my son and I think about, like, how much more life that I have to live, and I think just quality of life was first, like, I can’t sing if I’m not here,” she said.

Long also shared where she stands in the process—six months post-op. “Tomorrow’s my last appointment for all the things,” she continued. “[I’m] asymptomatic, no infections, none of that, and then I have my vocal checkup in August because I had to have vocal surgery as well.”

Her recovery has also reshaped how she thinks about her own health. Long said she’s feeling “fabulous” and encouraged others to pay attention to themselves instead of holding everything in. “If there’s anybody watching this. I would say I think the bulk of my trauma came from just holding everything in. trying to shoulder everybody else’s problems. always being the strong friend. the one who has it all together. ” she said.

She added that she didn’t speak up the way she should have. “Don’t put yourself on the back burner for everyone else. You need to focus on you. You need to pour into yourself. Don’t be afraid to say no. Rest if you need to.”

Facing what she called “my mortality,” Long said she kept asking herself a difficult question. “Have I really served myself the way that I should? Have I really given to myself the way I give to others?” she said. “And the answer was no.”

“And the answer was no,” she continued. “So this time around I’m definitely going to be a little bit more selfish. I’m gonna take care of myself first so that I can take care of everybody else.”

Muni Long double lung transplant one week to live Good Morning America pneumonia lupus The Boy Is Mine Tour Brandy Monica recovery vocal surgery