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Inside Louise Thompson’s health battle as she reveals stoma bag that ‘saved’ her-Danni Scott-Entertainment – Metro
She’s one ‘strong cookie’.
![Inside Louise Thompson’s health battle as she reveals stoma bag that ‘saved’ her-Danni Scott-Entertainment – Metro](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/SEC_137749480-c588.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1024)
Louise Thompson has had a rough three years with her health (Picture: Louise Thompson/Instagram)
Made in Chelsea star Louise Thompson has not shied away from sharing her health crisis with fans, documenting the often terrifying battle.
The 34-year-old fitness influencer recently revealed her little grey stoma bag to her 1.2 million Instagram followers, saying it had ‘saved’ her life.
Louise wrote: ‘Isn’t it bizarre that this little grey pouch is the price I pay for good health! I say good riddance to that nasty menacing colon!’
In February, she had been rushed to hospital after she lost copious amounts of blood while on holiday with her fiancé Ryan Libbey and their son Leo.
Louise has since been diagnosed with lupus and revealed she has ulcerative colitis, both of which can be devastating to someone’s health.
From ‘dancing with death’ during her pregnancy to her most positive stoma update, the reality TV star has had a long and painful journey.
She recently revealed she now has a stoma bag fitted (Picture: Louise Thompson/Instagram)
Post-birth concerns
Before she got pregnant, Louise was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, which is inflammation of the lower end of your digestive system, including your large bowel and rectum.
However, it was when she gave birth to son Leo, who she shares with fellow Made in Chelsea star Ryan, Louise began to experience near death complications.
In November 2021, the couple welcomed their son but did not announce anything until days before Christmas as the new mum remained in hospital.
‘To dance with death twice brings a whole new view of the world,’ she revealed and shared that she had been admitted to the ICU while Leo also was put in intensive care.
Baby Leo-Hunter was born in January 2022 (Picture: Louise Thompson/Instagram)
Louise stayed in hospital in the ICU after a traumatic birth (Picture: Louise Thompson/Instagram)
‘Whilst Leo made a fairly quick recovery ❤️🩹🙏🏼 I have been recovering in hospital for a month with various serious complications.’
Not long afterwards, Louise shared she was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms as well as post-natal anxiety.
Her mind was in ‘constant fight or flight mode’ while the Jump star became prone to depressive attacks which she described as ‘panic episodes’.
Sharing her deeply emotional experiences, Louise wrote: ‘My panic episodes can last hours or days and are totally unpredictable. When I’m having one I can’t function, I can’t look after myself, let alone anyone else around me.
She had been relatively healthy until the birth (Picture: Louise Thompson/Instagram)
She said she ‘danced with death’ giving birth to Leo (Picture: Louise Thompson/Instagram)
‘I can’t even spell my name. I can’t see, I can’t hear, I can’t look anyone in the eye. They have got so bad that I have convinced myself that I’m going crazy.
‘I feel depersonalisation, hyper paranoia as if I’ve taken a million and one drugs and I feel like I’m stuck in another realm. I am not myself.’
Lupus diagnosis
After being admitted to hospital again, Louise said her brain had ‘basically shut down’ and she had experienced panic attacks ‘back to back’ during her toughest moments.
Tiredness and severe joint pain flared up time and time again with numerous hospital trips and in December 2022 she announced her diagnosis of Lupus.
Lupus is a long-term condition for which the main symptoms are joint pain, skin rashes and tiredness but also include stomach pain, hair loss, swelling, and weight fluctuations.
After suffering from PTSD her health took another blow (Picture: Louise Thompson/Instagram)
Worrying blood tests meant more hospital trips and a lupus diagnosis (Picture: Louise Thompson/Instagram)
Selena Gomez also suffers from the condition, which currently has no known cure and can be incredibly debilitating.
Explaining her symptoms further, Louise posted: ‘I’ve got drug induced lupus. So I’m suffering from that which is fabulous.
‘It means that I’m really tired but I’ve also started to get really intolerable joint pain especially if I sit down for any amount of time if I cross my legs.’
The fitness influencer confessed: ‘I’ve never experienced anything like it in my life. I’ve always been so able bodied and so active, exercise has been such a big part of my life and it’s just so rough having to adapt to all of these new medical conditions so that’s been really tough.’
A ‘major haemorrhage’
Her health had settled down post-birth and mood stabilised, although while documenting trips skiing or to cosy cabins she would confess some days had been harder than others.
Things really took a turn when the family took planned trip to St. Lucia, with Louise deteriorating quickly as her ‘health got in the way’.
The family’s trip to St Lucia was postponed after a health dip (Picture: Louise Thompson/Instagram)
She had suffered from a huge haemorrhage days before the flight (Picture: Louise Thompson/Instagram)
They postponed the trip until May 2023, which the star explained as she shared little snaps of her and her son together on the beach.
She said: ‘I should be counting my lucky stars that I was firmly on British soil when I suffered a major haemorrhage and had subsequent emergency surgery at the end of January.’
The haemorrhage came days before she was meant to fly out and Louise noted she likely ‘wouldn’t have survived’ had it started while they were travelling.
This led to a lot of doctors visits over the next year and ‘hospital appointments every single week’ which had ’50+ blood tests’ that were ‘far too painful to watch’.
They did manage to go on their travels months later (Picture: Louise Thompson/Instagram)
A lengthy stay in hospital
Louise – whose younger brother is I’m A Celebrity 2023 winner Sam Thompson – bit the bullet in early 2024 and decided to travel.
The family headed to Antigua for some sunshine before the star’s health once again deteriorated, resulting in a long hospital stay in February.
‘Whilst away I fell asleep lots randomly in the car and in the middle of the day and on the beach. Couldn’t really walk or pick up Leo,’ she revealed after the holiday.
She had been blue-lighted after ‘going to the loo every 20 minutes losing cups full of blood’ but admitted this wasn’t the alarm bell it should have been.
Leo didn’t know how to cope seeing his mum in hospital (Picture: Louise Thompson/Instagram)
She was admitted twice in February spending three weeks in care (Picture: Louise Thompson/Instagram)
Louise wrote: ‘My body was “surviving”, “masking” and “compensating” but probably only because I’m young and I’ve got a good ticker. Bit of a miracle really.
‘Most people would be in A&E day 1 with my symptoms, I have no qualms in saying that because I know what my symptoms were and they were not ok, I’ll spare you some of the grittier details, but I became a little “too used” to my chronic condition.’
‘We’re missing mummy every day,’ fiancé Ryan wrote on his Instagram story, sharing he had taken Leo to see his mum.
Louise later reflected on the ordeal and said that Leo visiting her was ‘pure magic’ as she remained on the ward for nearly three weeks.
She has said she hoped 2024 would be a better year for the family (Picture: Louise Thompson/Instagram)
He continued: ‘That was the first time Leo has seen her for 13 days. It was a difficult, emotional, confusing experience for him, but fortunately after a few minutes Leo was cuddling up in bed with mummy singing twinkle twinkle little star.’
After 17 days, Louise was allowed to go home — only to be rushed back a week later with Ryan sharing he had purchased headphones to try and cheer her up.
The dad admitted he was simply ‘praying’ they could be together as a family again by the weekend.
Stoma bag reveal
In April 2024, Louise revealed she had been fitted with a stoma bag or colostomy which she called: ‘Le bum bag.’
‘Not exactly a glamorous announcement but not something I want to keep hidden forever,’ she said as she showed off the bag underneath her jeans.
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Stomas are a hole in the abdomen which collect waste from the gut and can be temporary or permanent, such as Dancing On Ice star Adele Roberts’ bag nicknamed Audrey.
Taking to poetry to explain the situation, Louise penned: Hey look i’m having a boy…/Hey look i’ve got a stoma!
‘So I guess i’ll just stand here/ Proud in stature/ With my new friend/ Le bum bag/ that represents life/ And hopefully a better one.’
Louise now has a stoma bag (Picture: Louise Thompson/Instagram)
She added: ‘Isn’t it bizarre that this little grey pouch is the price I pay for good health! I say good riddance to that nasty menacing colon!’
Previously Louise had said that she wanted 2024 to be her ‘best year’ and now, hopefully, the ditching of her ‘nasty menacing colon’ will let her have just that.
In her own words, the reality TV star is a ‘strong cookie’ and ‘working hard on a speedy recovery’.
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