Guy Zoartz updates fans after successful back surgery

"Big prayer" is how host Guy Zoartz described the moments before undergoing back surgery, after disappearing from "Big Brother" and from social media because of a severe herniated disc and intense pain. The injury forced him off the screen in recent days, and Kevin Rubin stepped in at the last minute to present the show alongside Liron Weitzman.

In a series of personal Instagram videos posted on Monday, Zoartz told his hundreds of thousands of followers that he had gone through a complex medical process and was now in the early stages of recovery at home. He said he had been off social media for several days because of hospitalization and the procedure, and thanked followers for the many messages, concern and treatment suggestions they sent him.

"I really felt you and your care," he said, adding, "I am fine, recovering, resting, working on myself at resting. The hardest mission I have ever had in my life is to rest." He said his wife, Yael Bar Zohar, is with him during recovery.

Zoartz said this was the first time in his life he had been on an operating table, and admitted, "It is very, very stressful," because it was a back operation and there is always fear that something could go wrong. He said that in the final moments before anesthesia took effect, he turned to prayer, giving thanks to God and for his family, "for Yaeli, for the children," and asking that everything go well. He said he held on to the words, "I have set the Lord before me always," and concluded that the surgery passed safely.