“I was weak in that spot, so it didn’t take much,” Gifford says to PEOPLE. Before you know it, I’m back in the hospital suffering from a pelvic fracture in both my back and front. That hurts worse than anything I’ve ever felt on my hip. The pelvic pain is unbelievably excruciating. But here I am.

Gifford calls it a “humbling experience,” and because she “don’t trust myself,” she made the decision to stay at the hospital for a whole week.

According to Gifford, “you think you understand your body, and then you realize that as you age, your body changes.” “And I am considering it, even though I would prefer not to.”

Gifford says, “I’m not enjoying summer like everyone else is.” But it’s all right. I plan to visit my modest farm one day and take a bath in my saltwater pool. I’m hearing from the Lord to please settle down. I’ve been jogging all my life. The Lord is telling me that I have one billion roses planted. Give them a whiff.

Gifford described her hip replacement surgery recovery as “one of the most painful situations of my entire life” when she spoke with PEOPLE earlier this month.

“It’s been pretty challenging,” she went on.

Owing to her hectic schedule, the television star needed surgery. “You made movies, you got on stages, you climbed mountains,” the surgeon remarked, in her memory. You are feeling this because you persisted and did not take off your stilettos.

Despite the challenging recovery, Gifford is happy that she made the most of her life.

Thinking about it, would I change it? No, I was doing the work that God had given me to do. She said at the time, “I was doing what He called me to do every year of it.”

Gifford is still celebrating the release of her most recent book, Helen and Mary: The True Story of the Tyrant King and the Mother of the Risen Savior, even though she is in the hospital.

Providing “deep insight to how Herod came to power, how corruption and an ancient evil threatened the stability of a nation, and how a teenage Mary was called to traverse these obstacles to bring the Savior, Jesus, our living hope, into the world,” is how the official description of the historical nonfiction book puts it.

A few years prior, while on a rabbinical trip to Israel, Gifford claimed to have had an epiphany for the book. She was “convinced” by 34-year-old Cody that “people need hope,” which is why these stories needed to be told.

“I ask that the Lord use me for his glory for the duration of my time here on earth. How long the Lord has me here on earth is a mystery to me. that I would be kind, giving, and loving to everyone,” she addressed PEOPLE. “I’m a strong woman, but I’m a woman who has tried to serve God’s kingdom, follow morality, and love others for the past 60 years.”