Erin Napier still suffers years after having perforated appendix removed Mon 7 February 2022 11:11 Helen Williams
Mia Lopez Erin and Ben Napier are the stars of HGTV’s Home Town. The show has been running since 2016 and husband and wife fixer-upper duo Ben and Erin have transformed tonnes of houses in Laurel, Mississippi.
The pair work tirelessly to transform regular houses into beautiful homes and use their many skills and endless creativity to get the job done. Ben and Erin are no strangers to hard work, so much so that viewers may have no idea that Erin Napier has battled with an illness for years.
Erin Napier’s illness explored
In an Instagram post on January 20th, 2022 Erin revealed that she suffered from an illness for around a decade.
She stated that in her college years she’d get spells of pain in her stomach area which later became more regular in 2008 when she and Ben got married. Her pain was so bad that one night she had to ask Ben to take her to the hospital.
Erin went through many years of misdiagnosis for her illness. Doctors suggested that she could have an issue with her gallbladder, celiac disease and she wrote that one doctor even suggested: “it was all in her mind“.
The Home Town star had a perforated appendix
In Erin’s 2022 Instagram post she wrote: “These hospital photos were taken in 2014, at the end of my 10 year illness from (unknowingly) a perforated appendix“.
Many Home Town fans may wonder what caused Erin to have a perforated appendix. According to Children’s Minnesota: “If the opening to the appendix gets blocked by some material from the intestine, it becomes irritated, swollen, and infected. Sometimes an infection of the appendix can cause a hole that allows the infection to spread to the rest of the abdomen.“
But it wasn’t just the physical aspects of her illness that were getting to Erin. She wrote in her book, Make Something Good Today, that her enthusiasm for things she loved depleted and she was losing passion for her work.
Erin still suffers from her illness in a different way
After finally getting a correct diagnosis, Erin had her appendix removed eight years ago.
She wrote on Instagram that although she no longer suffers physically, she’s been left with “extreme fear and preoccupation with sickness and nausea” which has led to panic attacks.
Erin wrote: “My brain, without my permission, sets off on a fight or flight mission to save my life, when my life is not in any danger at all.“
The Home Town star said that the after-effects of her illness are still something she’s “untangling” every day and shared with her followers that “there’s always a light in the darkness“.
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