MICHAEL DESMOND / ABC Derek Hough's hospital stays are getting to be a real pain in the neck. And stomach.
For the second consecutive week, the Dancing with the Stars pro was taken to the hospital just hours before a live show, this time around to deal with a sudden and particularly nasty bout of food poisoning.
While the 21-year-old Hough, who was taken to the hospital Monday morning, ultimately made it out in time to perform a less-than-judge-pleasing samba with partner Shannon Elizabeth, the situation was sufficiently hairy that fellow pro Jonathan Roberts was called in to the studio lest he needed to fill in for the ailing hoofer.
"It was just a freak thing," Hough told E! News after the show. "I woke up this morning and started throwing up constantly. I just drank a shake on an empty stomach and I think that didn't agree with my stomach. I was puking like 20 times."
"They wanted to keep me there longer and give me an IV and stuff, but I was like, 'I got to get to the show...I must dance with Shannon.'"
The brief hospital sojourn was nothing new for the dancer, who last Tuesday was carted off in an ambulance after spraining his neck while rehearsing with sister Julianne and fellow pro Mark Ballas for a results-show performance with Kylie Minogue.
In the end, Hough was released with a neck brace and cut out of the dance.
After last night's show, Hough said his ER trips would not be a weekly occurrence, least of all because the hospital staff is getting sick and tired of seeing him.
"They're like, 'Hey, you again!'" he said of his most recent admittance. "I'm like, 'Yep, me again.' We're done with that."
Elizabeth agreed, adding that if he were to hop another ambulance ride to the hospital, "nobody would believe it."
Miserable as the bout of food poisoning was, though, Hough managed to find one body-conscious bonus to the whole ordeal.
"I've gained four pounds these past couple weeks, and then today I lost it all...and then some. Now I'm back to my skinny self."
"I had to draw on my muscles today," he joked. "I had to draw them on."
Hough and Elizabeth are one of just eight couples remaining in the competition. One will be voted off tonight, when James Blunt takes the stage, and the remaining hot-steppers will perform their first group dance next week.