TONIC EXCLUSIVE: Ethan Zohn Home From the Hospital

Ethan Zohn is home. He's in his own bed. And he couldn't be happier.

The Survivor: Africa winner, who has been battling a rare form of Hodgkin's lymphoma for nearly a year, checked out of Memorial Sloan-Kettering hospital in Manhattan on Jan. 10 — a full 20 days after he checked in for a stem-cell transplant.

It was a grueling procedure, in which doctors basically brought his red- and white-blood-cell counts to zero before introducing his own previously harvested healthy stem cells and rebuilding his immune system from scratch. "The ultimate test of strength and will known to man," says Zohn.

That's saying a lot, coming from a guy who survived a month in the wilds of Africa to take home Survivor's $1-million prize in 2002, and went back for more grueling days a few years later on Survivor: All-Stars. But before he was through, the intense chemo — and, hence, intense vomiting — brought the athletic Zohn's body down to a paltry 149 hairless pounds.

Still, in a note chronicling his days in isolation, which he posted to a website for his friends and family, Zohn showed that he kept up his always-competitive spirit. While prepping for the transplant, he noted, he set a record: "the most urine collected in a 24 hour period. 13.5 liters. Thank you very much. Previous record for the hospital was 10.4 liters," he wrote.

On New Year's Eve, his white blood cell count hit zero. "I officially have no immune system," he wrote. "Zero. So strange."

By January 3, he wrote, "Pain is at an absolute high. I'm numb to the world. Struggling to find a balance between pain, consciousness and death."

A series of platelet transfusions followed, as well as a slow rebuilding of his strength, until he was finally allowed to leave the hospital after a 20-day stay. "Everyone at the hospital is impressed with my quick recovery," he writes. "Most folks think about [just starting] the process of going home on day 20...I'm home on day 20. Love it."

Since a regimen of intense radiation treatments late last year eradicated any signs of active cancer cells in his body even before this treatment, doctors are very hopeful that the stem-cell transplant will keep Zohn's cancer from coming back.

Zohn will remain in near-isolation at his apartment for the next few weeks. With a weakened immune system, he'll need to be extremely germ-conscious. But after a nearly year-long struggle, that part will likely seem easy.

After all, Zohn is a guy who even in the face of cancer continues to dedicate his life to helping other people overcome their own struggles, which we wrote about here last week.

Now that he's home, and his body is cancer-free, you can rest assured that he'll be back to his life of giving back in no time at all.