The 'Dancing With the Stars' judge revealed she had emergency surgery last week.
Carrie Ann Inaba suffered a medical emergency! On Thursday, the Dancing With the Stars judge revealed that she underwent an emergency appendectomy, giving her followers a look inside of her hospital stay in a video set to Meghan Trainor's "Me Too."
In the video, Inaba shares a view of her IV drip, a chart with her acute appendicitis diagnosis, and some selfies. On top of the videos are the captions, "A little late night surgery," "A few complications" and "Four night hospital stay."
According to the Mayo Clinic, "appendicitis is an inflammation of the appendix, a finger-shaped pouch that projects from your colon on the lower right side of your abdomen."
Inaba's captioned spelled out the entire experience.
"Special shout out to the wonderful staff of doctors, nurses and aides at @cedarssinai for taking such good care of me. 💕💕💕🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼 I had an emergency appendectomy last week and while it’s been quite a painful experience, I also know it’s a gift to even feel this pain. I realize after speaking with my doctor that it could have been much worse," the 55-year-old dancer wrote.
Inaba, who has been vocal about her struggle with fibromyalgia, lupus and arthritis, along with Sjögren's Syndrome -- all autoimmune diseases -- added that she should have listened to her body.
"Appendicitis attacks happen suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere. And when you are in that much pain, the last thing you want to do is go anywhere. And when you have autoimmune disease, you are often having strange health occurrences that no one can explain or help you with so sometimes, you try to wait it out, like I did," she wrote.
"I was wrong. I should have come straight to the hospital right when the pain in my abdomen started, after the sudden and violent vomiting that knocked me off my feet. I should have gone when I couldn’t stand without excruciating pain… but I honestly didn’t want to leave my babies, and I’m so accustomed to pain —thought I should let it play out."
Inaba ended her post with a warning to her followers, and another round of thanks for the doctors and medical professionals at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
"If you have pain in your abdomen, please have it checked out because it could be something very serious," she said. "Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone at @cedarssinai for the great care. If I needed to do it again, I would come back to you. Thankfully, my appendix will not be bothering me anymore. 🙏🏼💕 #byebyeappendix #appendicitis #health #autoimmunedisease."
Inaba has been open about her health. In 2021, she took a series of leave of absences from The Talk to focus on her "well-being."
The dancer also wrote about her struggles with chronic illness on her website. "I've been diagnosed with several autoimmune conditions: lupus, Sjogrën’s, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, and, most recently, vasculitis. For many years now, my life has been full of ups and downs, and lots of hard work to help me to feel my best, to land at a new normal that’s comfortable and sustainable."
RELATED CONTENT:
