Dr. Sandra Lee, known as Dr. Pimple Popper, revealed she experienced a stroke while filming the upcoming season of Lifetime’s Dr. Pimple Popper: Breaking Out last year, leading production to halt for two months.
In an interview with People published on Tuesday, the dermatologist recalled first noticing symptoms in November while seeing patients at her Upland, California, practice.
“It happened while I was filming,” she said. “I thought I was having a hot flash. I got super sweaty and didn’t feel like myself.”
Afterward, she went to her parents’ house, where her symptoms worsened. “I just felt very restless. In one leg, I kept feeling shooting pains, Lee said. “I noticed that I was having a tough time walking down the stairs.”
The next day, her condition became more alarming. “I would hold my hand out, and it would just slowly collapse. I noticed that I had a tough time articulating and just enunciating. I thought, ‘Am I having a stroke?’”
She went to the emergency room, where an MRI revealed she had suffered an ischemic stroke.
“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?’ What essentially happened is I had a part of my brain that died.”
Production paused for two months as Lee underwent physical and occupational therapy to regain control of her hands. She admitted returning to work was “very scary” and wasn’t sure she could perform surgeries the same way. “There’s a lot of PTSD because it happened while I was filming the show,” she said.
Now, she said she is “pretty much back to normal” and viewed the experience as a turning point. “I want to think of it as a blessing in disguise because it reminds you to take better care of yourself.”
Lee is continuing physical therapy and is managing her health with blood thinners while monitoring her blood pressure, cholesterol and stress.
The second season of Dr. Pimple Popper: Breaking Out premieres April 20.
