Dr. Pimple Popper, Sandra Lee, speaks out about stroke recovery – USA Today

The viral social media sensation turned reality TV star, Dr. Pimple Popper, has an update on her health after revealing she suffered a stroke while filming season two of her Lifetime series.
In an interview with E! News published April 24, “Dr. Pimple Popper: Breaking Out” star Dr. Sandra Lee said she has post-traumatic stress disorder from the medical emergency she experienced at work on Nov. 20, when what she initially thought was just a hot flash turned out to be an ischemic stroke.
“It is scary, there’s actually some PTSD that comes along with it,” Lee told the outlet. “When I went back up to start filming, I would remember, ‘This is where I was when this happened. This was the time of day when this happened.'”
The dermatological surgeon, 55, said her practice gave her time to recover and return once she could “really feel very confident in what I was doing again.”
“The show is probably one of the more stressful things that I do in my life, because these patients are depending on me and they come from really far and they think that I’m their last hope,” she said. “The most important thing with me is to treat patients as I normally would. So, if I couldn’t do that, or I felt apprehensive about that, it was really important that I was in a good space before I started back again.”
The stroke was a wake-up call for the SLMD Skincare founder, who told E! News that she is treating and monitoring her blood pressure and cholesterol, as the two were major contributors to the blood clot in her brain.
“I take new medications,” Lee said. “I’m seeing a bunch of different doctors and trying to make my diet better. Certainly exercise more.”
She explained that she’s also focused on strengthening her neuroplasticity by “retraining your brain to talk to your body,” E! News reported. “Your brain is not communicating and telling your arm to do the thing that you want it to,” she added, “So, you have to retrain it by really doing these things over and over again.”
Despite the experience being terrifying, she describes the health scare as a “blessing in disguise” because she “caught this early, I’m able to fix it, I’m able to get better.” She encourages others to monitor their blood pressure and cholesterol.
When she revealed the stroke to People magazine in an interview published April 14, Lee said that she’s “pretty much back to normal” but said that she sometimes notices that “I don’t speak exactly the way I used to.”
Lee explained that she thought she had a hot flash because she “got super sweaty and didn’t feel like myself.” As the day went on her symptoms worsened, including “shooting pains” in one leg. She had difficulty walking down the stairs at night. The next morning, she couldn’t hold her arm up; her hand “would just slowly collapse.”
She soon started struggling “articulating and enunciating,” leading her to ask, “Am I having a stroke?”
An MRI later confirmed she experienced an ischemic stroke, which occurs when “blood clots or other particles block the blood vessels to the brain,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When the flow of blood is stymied, “brain cells start to die within minutes because they can’t get oxygen.”
The immediate aftermath involved two months of recovery, which entailed physical and occupational therapy that helped Lee find equilibrium and regain movement, People reported. She also told the outlet that blood thinners were a part of her treatment.
Signs of a stroke can be identified by sudden numbness or weakness in the face, arm, or leg; sudden confusion, trouble speaking, or difficulty understanding speech; issues with eyesight; loss of balance, dizziness, and difficulty walking; and severe headache with no identifiable cause.
“The stroke treatments that work best are available only if the stroke is recognized and diagnosed within 3 hours of the first symptoms,” the CDC advises.
High blood pressure is a leading cause of stroke, per the CDC. High cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and smoking are several other risk factors for experiencing a stroke.

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