Louise Thompson has revealed she went into “deep panic mode” after she started bleeding on holiday.
The former Made In Chelsea star took baby son Leo-Hunter on his first trip abroad with her family to Mykonos.
But the 32-year-old shared she had experienced a “very scary situation” relating to an existing medical condition she suffers from.
The mum-of-one has Ulcerative Colitis (UC), an incurable autoimmune condition which means the colon can become inflamed.
This can cause small ulcers to develop on the colon’s lining and bleed, according to the NHS – who say it affects around 146,000 people in the UK.
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Taking to Instagram, Louise shared a health 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.
“As you can imagine I find excessive bleeding pretty triggering [following the traumatic birth of baby Leo].
“Couldn’t get to grips with the idea of a 1 hour air ambulance to Athens if things got bad so I booked a flight to come home – but after a chat with a wonderful gastro I’ve decided to stay.”
In another post on her Instagram stories Louise shared she was eating a ‘colitis friendly breakfast’ of eggs, salmon, white bread and melon.
Speaking about her condition in the past, Louise explained: “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.”
After being diagnosed with UC a few years ago, Louise has overhauled her lifestyle and is now a fitness guru.
As well as regularly working out – something she credits with saving her life during Leo’s birth – she has to watch what she eats so her symptoms don’t flare up.
She said doctors don’t know for sure what triggers the condition to come back, but nutrition definitely plays a part, along with stress.
Detailing what happens during a flare up, Louise said she loses a lot of blood, gets stomach pain, fatigue and becomes very dehydrated. This causes her to “look grey” and generally feel very unwell.
Writing a candid post on social media, she said since she has been taking mental health medication, her UC symptoms have worsened.
“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.”
Raising awareness on the subject, 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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