Sandra Lee, aka Dr. Pimple Popper, is reflecting on her life-altering stroke last November.
The California-based dermatologist, known for her popular TLC reality series, Dr. Pimple Popper, recently revealed she suffered an ischemic stroke while filming the second season of her Lifetime show, Dr. Pimple Popper: Breaking Out.
In an interview with People, Lee, 55, opened up about the realization she had as a result of the medical episode.
“It helped remind me like, ‘Look, I’ve got to take better care of myself and I really have to enjoy the time with my family and my friends,’” Lee said.
The stroke also made her take stock of what was precious in life: her two sons.
Lee noted that the health scare occurred just after she and her husband, fellow dermatologist Dr. Jeffrey Rebish, had sent their youngest son to college. Their oldest son is also in college.
“It’s the first time in my life that I’ve thought, ‘You have kids, are you going to be here for them? Are you going to live to see your grandkids?’” she told the outlet.
“They could see that I was walking slower and that I had a little more trouble speaking,” she added. “But I don’t dwell on it or make them worried. I just tend to be like, ‘I’m okay.’”
While she spent the following two months undergoing extensive physical and occupational therapy to regain balance and motor movements, she said the “whole stroke has sort of weakened my body I feel like, or made me feel a lot older more quickly.”
Lee first achieved viral fame around 2014 with Instagram videos showing her extracting blackheads and cysts. Her online popularity helped launch the hit nine-season TLC reality series Dr. Pimple Popper, which followed her as she treated patients with unusual facial and skin conditions.
Following the show’s conclusion in 2023, she returned to the screen in Lifetime’s ongoing series, Dr. Pimple Popper: Breaking Out, which features intimate, self-shot footage of Lee’s life outside of the office.
The debilitating stroke happened while she was on set for the second season of the latter.
“I had what I thought was a hot flash,” she explained to People in an interview published Monday. “I got super sweaty and didn’t feel like myself.”
After spending the night at her parents’ home, she said she woke up unable to use the left side of her body. She immediately went to the emergency room, where she had an MRI that showed she had indeed suffered an ischemic stroke, which occurs when blood supply to the brain is cut off by a clot, restricting the flow of oxygen.
“What essentially happened,” she added, “is I had a part of my brain that died.”
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