Louise Thompson said she thought she may have to be transported by air ambulance while on a family holiday after experiencing a “scary” health incident.
The former Made in Chelsea star, 32, experienced heavy bleeding while on the trip from Athens to Mykonos and said she went into “deep panic mode.”
Louise suffers from Ulcerative Colitis (UC), an autoimmune condition that can cause the colon to become inflamed.
The condition can lead to small ulcers developing on the colon’s lining which can often bleed.
Taking to Instagram, the mum-of-one shared an update with her 1.4 million followers.
She wrote: “Radio silence yesterday because I had a very scary UC situation where I started bleeding A LOT without any muscular contractions and it sent me into deep panic mode.
(Image: Instagram)
“As you can imagine I find excessive bleeding pretty triggering [following the traumatic birth of baby Leo].”
Louise had previously discussed her condition in the past, saying: “You have it for life and there’s no cure, but you have periods of remission and then you also have flare ups.
“With regards to day-to-day life, when I’m in remission I don’t have any symptoms – so that’s the goal.
“You want to manage your body so you can get to that place and be able to function normally.”
(Image: Instagram)
After her UC diagnosis a few years ago, Louise has overhauled her lifestyle and is now a fitness guru.
As well as regularly working out, she watches what she eats so her symptoms don’t flare up.
She said doctors don’t know for sure what triggers flare-ups of the condition but nutrition and stress play their parts.
During episodes, Louise loses a lot of blood, gets stomach pain, experiences fatigue and becomes very dehydrated.
She posted on social media that since she has been taking mental health medication, her UC symptoms have worsened.
(Image: Instagram/ @louise.thompson)
Louise said: “Losing control of basic bodily functions is pretty miserable, and is a sad reality for many people suffering with inflammatory bowel disease
“Just because these diseases tend to be ‘invisible’ (yes I look pretty healthy in these pics), it doesn’t mean that they aren’t as serious as other major diseases.”
She added: “It shouldn’t take having to walk around with a stoma bag for people to take it seriously. If you know someone with crohn’s or colitis why not ask them about it.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
