This is an interesting article…
..The doctor's first thought was that Elvis had had a seizure and he injected him with a stimulant to improve his breathing. Then he and Elvis's manager dragged him into the ensuite bathroom and managed to get him into the bath, which they filled with cold water. Soon they were dressing him in his stage clothes.
Incredibly Elvis managed to perform that night, leaving Dr Nick determined to find out what had caused the handsome man he first met to degenerate into the bloated figure he had become.
Elvis himself refused to give him any clues. Finally, one of his problems was revealed - he and Priscilla were getting divorced. Three days after the final decree was issued in California, the singer, in worse condition than he had ever been, chartered a plane back to Graceland and called for Dr Nick.
This time the doctor arrived to find his patient's face puffy, pink and almost transparent, and his stomach distended. He suspected either an allergic reaction or heart failure, especially since heart disease ran in the family.
Hospital tests established that Elvis had hepatitis, an enlarged liver ( possibly from painkillers) and Cushing's syndrome. The last was a hormonal disease that caused bloating, and was down to the many steroids he had been taking to combat the asthma that ran in the family and his ongoing colon problems.
When Dr Nick asked him why he was also covered in bruises, Elvis tried to tell him the marks were from acupuncture needles. Finally he confessed that a couple of Beverly Hills physicians had prescribed the narcotic Demerol to cure back and neck pain, and Novocaine to reduce the pain at the injection sites...
