Katie Piper has revealed to fans that a hospital dash resulted in her undergoing an emergency operation. The Loose Women star said her husband, Richard James Sutton, noticed a black spot in her eye over the weekend and said it become "extremely painful".
Sharing photos of herself with a bandaged eye, Katie, 38, wrote on Instagram on Tuesday (August 16): "Emergency Operation for me! On Saturday my husband noticed a small black circle in my blind eye, I was excited thinking I had a pupil again, but by Sunday my left eye was extremely painful and couldn’t tolerate light, so I patched it up and put it down to old injuries."
She said that she is "used to being in some level of discomfort" and so headed off to work as usual. Things however, changed and "by Sunday night I felt nausea and in extreme pain," Katie said and she got in touch with her eye specialist who confirmed the black circle was a hole her eye and that the eye had perforated.
"This had always been a fear that it would happen," the mum-of-two said. "Yesterday [Monday] @sherazdaya sourced tissue for me and operated on me. I cannot thank him and his team enough, their knowledge and expertise but also how kind and caring they all are."
Katie ended her post: "There maybe some evil people in this world but there are also some pretty incredible people doing amazing things for people on a daily basis. Huge thank you team @sherazdaya @centreforsightuk You are the best!"
She was quickly flooded with responses from her celebrity pals. Strictly Come Dancing star Gorka Marquez said: "Sending you all the love." Singer and theatre star Alexandra Burke replied: "Sending you love darling and positive healing energy." This Morning cook Juliet Sear added: "Sending you lots of love and healing vibes."
Katie's post came after she appeared on Loose Women on Tuesday. During the show, Katie told her ‘Life Before Loose’ story, recalling her happy childhood growing up in Hampshire, her teenage rebellious years and the moment that simultaneously changed her life and found her purpose at 24 years old.
Talking to panellists Christine Lampard, Coleen Nolan and Janet Street-Porter, Katie said she had a "great" childhood and later studied a college hair and beauty course. She said, "I wasn’t really academic. It wasn’t because I wasn’t bright, I just wasn’t interested… I was more interested in going out and boyfriends."
She worked evenings and weekends in Tesco as a “checkout chick” before going behind the shop floor and onto the tannoy. Her earnings funded her train fair and her college kit. She commented: "I worked hard and learnt the value of money… my parents were pleased I was in college and working."
After college, Katie worked in a private health club as a beautician. “I used to massage Dr Hilary, he was one of my clients!” she smiled. But at the age 24, Katie’s life changed when a corrosive substance was thrown over her. Reflecting on that period, Katie said: "When I look back on it and reflect, it does feel like two separate lives. I’m 38, but I sort of feel in my 70s or 80s because what’s happened to me, condensed in such a short period doesn’t happen to some people in their whole lifetime."
She also recalled how people reacted to her during the early years of her recovery. "People reacted to asking me to leave shops, shouting at me in the street, I wasn’t famous, I wasn’t known, people didn’t understand why I wore a mask…" she explained. "I wanted to explain to people why I looked this way, educate people, relieve myself of that isolation]... I’m not contagious, I’ve not going something which means I need to be rejected from society."
Katie, who recently received an OBE also opened up about how Simon Cowell helped her in her journey to set up the Katie Piper Foundation, where she mentors burns survivors.
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