The Serious Medical Issue HGTV Star Erin Napier Experienced

"Home Town" renovation expert Erin Napier has been through the wringer when it comes to some of the health challenges she has faced over the years. For a decade, Napier powered through sometimes debilitating stomach cramps that she never realized were actually signs of a perforated appendix. The appendage had ruptured and healed itself repeatedly over the years and the scar tissue had wrapped itself around her organs. She had the tissue and her appendix removed surgically.

While Napier physically recovered, she discovered some other scars that also needed to heal. As she explained in an Instagram post from January 2022, "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. 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." 

She added, "We've all got our personal struggles. 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." In fact, in 2022, Napier would again find herself hospitalized. However, just like in the past, she had someone to lean on.

In May 2022, Erin Napier took to social media to share that she had been hospitalized for a medical procedure. She shared a selfie of her and Rodney and wrote on her Instagram feed, "Staying tonight in the hospital after a throat procedure, and feeling so cared for by an old friend... 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." She explained that she knew one of the hospital staff members because he had been a friend of her family for years. 

Napier did not directly address her throat issues in the post — and she didn't address the specifics until January 2023. As fans of the popular HGTV show know, the Laurel, Mississippi native often provides behind-the-scenes commentary when episodes of "Home Town" air on television. The mother of two took to Twitter to explain the way she looked during several episodes, finally providing some insight into her hospital stay. Napier tweeted, "I was hospitalized with an abscessed tonsil during this block, so this episode and several others are about to have me with a weird voice and super puffy faced from IV steroids." Poor Napier was filming the show while recovering from a medical crisis. No rest for the wickedly good designer!

HGTV stars Erin and Ben Napier have weathered a number of medical crises while filming "Home Town." Not only has the couple been transparent about the possibility of not being able to have their own biological children due to the scar tissue from Erin's perforated appendix, but the rest of the family has also had their fair share of health challenges. Since 2021 alone, Helen Napier has broken her leg, Mae Napier was born with a congenital defect,  and Ben tore his rotator cuff in February. Having worked through so many medical crises, it seems hard to imagine that, at one stage of her life, Erin thought doing everything in her power to avoid illness was the best strategy.

Back in 2012, the "Make Something Good Today" author once wrote about her strategy to remain healthy. She took to her blog and penned, "I spend an inordinate amount of my time avoiding illness. I scan Facebook each morning, looking for who's sick so I can avoid them for the next 10 days. It's a mental problem, really, my fear of getting sick. I'm not talking about a cold, but the flu, the stomach virus... We've been together for 8 years and neither of us has ever had the flu in that time... This sounds incredibly stupid—there are people out there with far worse ailments and diseases than the common flu, but it's hugely frightening to me." 

In the wake of COVID, Erin noted she can't help but daydream about "all that we took for granted." Despite the grief, the Napiers clearly have much to be grateful for.