Jeannie Mai Reveals She’s Underweight & Malnourished’ Following Emergency Surgery

The Real co-host Jeannie Mai is opening up about her recovery following emergency surgery from epiglottitis after suffering from a parapharyngeal abscess.

Mai revealed that she was very underweight and malnourished after being put on a liquid diet during her recovery process.

“I got kind of depressed because I lost about 10 pounds from just eating liquids, so I am really frail right now,” Mai said to People. “Really, really frail.”

As we reported, Mai was forced to leave ‘Dancing With The Stars,’ abruptly.

I was devastated, mortified, upset, I was in tears and I actually fought the doctor to say, ‘Can I just at least compete in this week’s competition?’ because I worked so hard on my Charleston, which was our next dance together with [pro partner] Brandon [Armstrong],’ ” she recalled.

Following surgery, Mai had a long way to go,

“The alarming thing is, I still couldn’t breathe afterwards,” Mai says. “It was even worse because now — because of extreme surgery, where he had removed my tonsils and also completely cut open the abscess in my throat in order to funnel the liquid out — my throat is swollen. I couldn’t eat anything for two weeks, so I was tube feeding there in the hospital for a week, and I had a nurse come in every two hours just to make sure I was breathing.”

“Having to be on extreme critical care watch was really scary. That was another scary part, when you realize how fragile you are coming out of surgery even though everything was removed,” she adds. “After I left the hospital, for a week being at home, I still had to be on an IV and I could not move, because anything you do that raises your blood pressure causes your throat to tighten up.”