Andrea McLean has opened up about a 'nasty' symptom she's been facing in the aftermath of her pneumonia diagnosis. The former Loose Women star, 55, said that while she starts the day appearing 'kind of normal', by dinner time it looks like she's 'swallowed a balloon'.
Although Andrea said the issue is bad enough at home, she also feels compelled to wear baggy clothes to hide her stomach when out and about. Thankfully, one thing has helped—and she's encouraged others who suffer from bloating or digestive issues to give it a try, too.
"I start the day looking kind of normal," she told her 300,000 Instagram followers. "Then, by dinner time, I look like I've swallowed a balloon. Which is bad enough if I'm at home, but if I go out, it means I have to wear something baggy to hide it, and that doesn't feel tight. Not fun.
"Some of you may know I was very poorly at the start of the year, and ended up on very strong antibiotics for a while. This completely messed up any poor little bacteria that were hanging on for dear life in my gut. This meant all kinds of added issues – let's just say I felt pretty sluggish, and the bloating was off the scale. It was nasty.
"I was recommended Gut Works by @drveganco and thought I'd give it a go. (I'm not vegan, but I'm open to trying anything that helps!) And it did!"
In December, Andrea spent a week 'sweating and shivering with a raging temperature and chills' before collapsing on the bathroom floor. She lay there for an hour before her husband saw this - he immediately called 999.
After being rushed to the hospital, Andrea faced numerous tests and scans. These revealed that she had acute kidney injury, sepsis, and severe pneumonia, resulting in a significant loss of lung capacity.
Andrea was then given 'super-strong antibiotics', painkillers and drips across several days. She previously described her hospital stay as a 'sensory overload', with relentless bright lights, distressing yells, and the omnipresent 'smell of poo'.
Sharing her ordeal on Substack, Andrea said last month: "Note to self; being a big brave girl and not saying how much pain you're in when you've lost 80% capacity in one of your lungs to severe pneumonia and infection is not a smart move. Get on the strong stuff ASAP."
While Andrea is now back home, she hasn't fully recovered yet. Earlier this month, she suffered a black eye after fainting on her bathroom floor in a separate health scare.
"I wish that I had a super exciting story as to why. I didn't leap from a moving car or parachute off a building," Andrea previously joked on Instagram. "Nope. I just woke up yesterday morning and got out of bed too fast, I guess before I'd properly woken up. By the time I'd walked the few steps to the bathroom I thought: 'I don't feel too good..' and fainted. I landed on my face.
"Literally face planted onto the bathroom floor. I have been checked out at A&E and thankfully my cheekbone isn't broken, and I won't lose any teeth. I was really lucky.
"Lesson learned. Take a moment. I'm not quite 'better' yet." Despite this, it appears that small measures, like Gut Works supplements, are gradually helping Andrea recover.
"I felt better after a couple of weeks," she said, reflecting on her experience with supplements this past weekend. "The bloatedness calmed down, things were moving more like they should and I started to feel a difference. It's been about two months now, and I feel more like myself again, but better."
