By India McCarty
Dr. Sandra Lee, a.k.a. “Dr. Pimple Popper,” urges fans not to make the same mistakes she did by ignoring early stroke signs.
“I don’t know if it was in my mind or what, or if it’s like if you have issues, sometimes you think it’s like anxiety,” she told Fox News, saying she always came up with a “good excuse” for symptoms like dizziness and anxiety.
Lee explained that working on her TV show, DR. PIMPLE POPPER: BREAKING OUT, is “a highly stressful environment, or highly stressful situation I put myself into.”
After going to the emergency room, Lee was diagnosed with an ischemic stroke and entered a two-month recovery period.
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Now, she encourages others not to ignore these early warning signs.
“If you have symptoms of something that may be a stroke, it is actually really important to be evaluated within the first hour, ideally or within the first four to five hours, because there are certain treatments that you can get at that time if you do indeed have what we call an ischemic stroke or loss of blood flow to a part of your brain,” Lee said.
Lee spoke further about her stroke and recovery process in an interview with PEOPLE, sharing that it began with what she thought was a “hot flash,” then progressed to pain in her leg, trouble walking and speaking and weakness on one side of her body.
“It was just a shock,” she said. “As a physician I couldn’t deny that I had slurred speech, that I was having weakness on one side, but I was like, ‘Well, this is a dream, right?’”
Lee continued, “What essentially happened is I had a part of my brain that died.”
The reality star is choosing to look at her stroke positively, explaining, “My blood pressure and my cholesterol were not under control, and I have a lot of stress in my life, dealing with my patients and the show. I want to think about it as a blessing in disguise. Because it reminds you to take better care of yourself.”
“I think that it was a warning sign to take care of myself and to slow down and prioritize my life,” she told Pop Sugar. “It’s not that I’m slowing down and doing nothing. It’s taking on the things that I really love.”
Lee’s story is an important reminder to keep track of your body and not to ignore little warning signs that could turn into something more serious.
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