Watch: RHOC’s Vicki Gunvalson Slams Rumor Her Kids Are Estranged After 8 Years Apart
Vicki Gunvalson wasn’t whooping it up about this.
The Real Housewives of Orange County star revealed that she underwent emergency knee surgery two days before taping the show’s season 20 reunion after experiencing “major pain.”
“I had a knee replacement on Sept. 11, so two and a half weeks ago, and then I just wasn’t feeling good,” Gunvalson shared on the Oct. 6 episode of her podcast My Friend, My Soulmate, My Podcast. “My doctor had me go get an X-ray, and he called and said, ‘Get back up here. We gotta take that knee out and put a different one in.’ Nothing he did wrong, but my body was rejecting that knee or there was a lot of infection around it.”
The 64-year-old shared that her boyfriend Michael Smith drove her six hours to the hospital, where they arrived around 11 p.m. ahead of her four-hour surgery at 7 a.m. the following morning.
“I had a half a day and then I had the reunion,” Gunvalson noted, “so I didn’t have much time to rest up.”
So, how did the unexpected health setback impact her experience while filming again?
As Gunvalson explained, “I have to say I was mentally prepared, [but] physically unprepared because I had no idea I was gonna have surgery two days prior again. They do a spinal block when you have knee surgery, and then they do a thigh block. So they put a big needle in your thigh and then one up your spine to numb everything.”
“You wake up in recovery and they’re like ‘Okay, get dressed. Get out,'” she continued of the quick turnaround. “But, anyway, I have to say it was nice to be back. It was really nice to be back. All in all, it’s going to be a great reunion.”
The Ultimate Girls Trip star—who once also had an emergency surgery just days before BravoCon—added that the powers that be at Bravo asked her to plan the timing of her procedures better.
“They’re like, ‘Vicki could you span out your surgeries a bit more?'” she shared. “I’m like, ‘I don’t get frequent surgeries, but then I guess I do!'”
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Gunvalson also noted that production adapted to her needs by putting a ramp up to her makeup trailer, moving her around set in a wheelchair and providing slippers between takes.
“Bravo was incredible,” she gushed. “They took such good care of me. I hired the surgical nurse to be there for me to keep my medications where it needed to be. I was very blessed to be there. I thought, ‘Shoot, I’m gonna miss it.’ The doctor was like, ‘Is it that important?’ I was like, ‘Yeah! You need to get me stitched up, ready to go.'”
Keep reading for more stars who have gone through health scares…
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