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Erin Napier found comfort in a friendly face during her recent hospital stay. The HGTV star took to Instagram on May 15, 2022, to reveal she had throat surgery.
“Staying tonight in the hospital after a throat procedure, and feeling so cared for by an old friend,” the “Home Town” host captioned a photo with a man she identified as Rodney.
The 36-year-old explained that her dad, “started the physical therapy program at our community hospital in 1975, then my brother followed in his footsteps and was a doctor of PT in the same department for 15 years.”
Since Napier was a little girl, she revealed Rodney worked in the hospital cafeteria and eventually became friends with her brother.
“Through every one of my family’s illnesses, tragedies and childbirths that have walked through these doors, Rodney was the man in the cafeteria that made you feel like family, who asked how everyone was and remembered them each by name,” she continued. “I’ve never been so happy to see him as I was tonight, expecting a bowl of chicken noodle soup but getting a needed visit with an old friend too.”
Napier lives in her hometown of Laurel, Mississippi with her husband and “Home Town” costar Ben. The couple share daughters Helen, 4, and Mae, 11 months.
Napier Had a 10-Year Battle With a Perforated Appendix
Napier is no stranger to health struggles, battling a perforated appendix for a decade.
She first opened up about her battle with a then-mystery illness in the book she released with her husband Ben, “Make Something Good Today.” In it, she details the bouts of pain, bloating and fever starting her sophomore year of college. Throughout the following years, she tried different remedies and went through various tests to figure out what was wrong.
Her Illness Had Long-term Effects on Her Mental Health
With her final surgery in 2014, she thought she had put it “all to bed.” But as she revealed in a January 2022 Instagram post, the experience had a lasting impact on her mental health.
“My appendix has been gone along with the physical suffering for 8 years now, but I’ve been learning through conversation with my friend who is a therapist that it left some deep ruts in my neuro pathways that have left me with an extreme fear and preoccupation with sickness, nausea in particular, ever since,” the “Home Town Kickstart” star wrote. “My brain, without my permission, sets off on a fight or flight mission to save my life, when my life is not in any danger at all. Panic attacks and spiraling thoughts come rushing in.”
The “constant upheaval and dread” of the COVID-19 pandemic caused her to finally connect the dots, Napier wrote.
She continued, “This is something you don’t know about me, but I don’t mind if you do. It’s not bad or good, it’s just part of my weird brain and I’m trying to untangle it every day, even as you may see happy news and posts from me.”
While she noted everyone has “personal struggles,” Napier concluded, “But isn’t it so nice to have this place for editing the hard parts out? Like seeing the people you love most gathered around your hospital bed, there’s always a light in the darkness.”
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