Heather Rae El Moussa is candidly speaking out about her health battle.
The HGTV star and wife of Tarek El Moussa discovered that she was suffering from an autoimmune disorder that made her feel gravely ill.
“I remember saying to my assistant, ‘I feel like I’m dead,” El Moussa told TODAY.com. “My brain was so tired. My body was so tired. I was exhausted all the time, and no amount of sleep could make it better.”
The “Selling Sunset” star explained that she had experienced severe symptoms at four months postpartum, after she noticed a dramatic drop in her milk supply and was consistently experiencing intense fatigue.
El Moussa, 36, noted that her health deeply impacted the days she had to be on camera for shows including “The Flipping El Moussas.”
“Filming was absolutely brutal, because I could barely get out of bed,” El Moussa remarked.
Disregarding her symptoms, El Moussa recalled telling herself she was “probably just foggy because of mom brain.”
After she sought a doctor’s advice, the real estate star was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease, a common autoimmune disorder in which the immune system attacks the thyroid gland, causing symptoms like exhaustion and weight gain, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
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Once the doctors diagnosed El Moussa with the autoimmune disorder, she said she was in “total shock.”
El Moussa was given medication to treat her illness, and since then she’s been “feeling much better.”
Heather Rae and Tarek El Moussa welcomed their first child together earlier this year, a baby boy named Tristan.
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In February, El Moussa shared some of the joys and struggles of being a new mom, including the difficulty in breastfeeding her three-week-old baby at the time because of his tongue, cheek and lip tie.
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“I had many tearful nights in the beginning, because I’d be up at 3am trying to feed him & felt so defeated,” she admitted on Instagram.
“Have been in mama hibernation mode for the past couple of weeks but soaking up some fresh air today with my lovey,” she wrote at the beginning of a lengthy caption along with a picture of her sitting outside with her son.
The “Selling Sunset” star went on to explain that Tristan had a tongue tie, cheek tie and lip tie, which made it difficult for him to latch to her breast and suck. The newborn also had jaundice.
Tristan was using up so much energy trying to feed that he was losing weight, she explained.
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“We’re now 2 weeks past getting his tongue tie fixed and he’s latching so well on the left side and we’re still working on the right side using non-traditional positions which were shown to me by the baby fairies,” she said, recommending a lactation specialist to moms choosing to breastfeed.
She said that while there isn’t “a ton of time of take care of yourself,” she suggested at the time to breastfeeding moms that they focus on “nutrition & hydration.”
Tarek additionally shares two children with ex-Christina Hall: Taylor, 13, and Brayden, 8.
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