Hollyoaks actress Lucy-Jo Hudson has revealed the cause of her worrying hospital dash earlier this week after suffering a health emergency.
The star, 40, needed urgent treatment in the form of two blood transfusions after being struck down by a mystery illness.
Now she has told how she’s been diagnosed with chronic anaemia after taking a six-day break from social media to recover.
Lucy said on Instagram: ‘Well it’s been a crazy time of late…. But I can finally say I am now fully on the mend!
‘Thank you for all your gorgeous and thoughtful messages, you don’t know how much I appreciate your kindness.
Tough: Hollyoaks actress Lucy-Jo Hudson has revealed the cause of her worrying hospital dash earlier this week after suffering a health emergency
Scared: The star, 40, needed urgent treatment in the form of two blood transfusions after suffering from a mystery illness
‘Sooooo long story short, I was very short of breath last week, having chest pains and it turned out my HB levels were scarily low!!! They should have been between 115-155, and mine were 67… my iron levels should have been 38-48 but they were 1.5!!!
‘I’ve been diagnosed with ‘Chronic Anaemia’.
‘I’m still looking into what’s causing all of this! But thanks to the amazing staff at Salford Royal, I was immediately put on the emergency assessment unit and given 2 blood transfusions, my HB levels have gone up to 94 so I can breathe again, and my iron levels (now I’m on medication for that) are slowly going up, so my health is heading in the right direction!!!’
‘I can honestly say I feel a million times better now…. I can’t actually believe how poorly I felt last week, and how I’ve Managed to function all of this time!? I’m ready to get back to some sort of routine now….
‘Which is a good thing cos the kids have just broken up for half term. Honestly….. how is it the school holidays again?’
The NHS says: ‘Iron deficiency anaemia is caused by lack of iron, often because of blood loss or pregnancy. It’s treated with iron tablets and by eating iron-rich foods.’
It comes after earlier this week Lucy-Jo told how she had received two blood transfusions because her hemoglobin (HB) levels had dropped to a ‘dangerously low’ level.
HB is is the protein contained in red blood cells that is responsible for delivery of oxygen to the tissues. To ensure adequate tissue oxygenation, a sufficient hemoglobin level must be maintained.
Update: Now she has told how she’s been diagnosed with chronic anaemia after taking a six-day break from social media to recover
Health: She said: ‘Sooooo long story short, I was very short of breath last week, having chest pains and it turned out my HB levels were scarily low!!!’
Information: The NHS says: ‘Iron deficiency anaemia is caused by lack of iron, often because of blood loss or pregnancy. It’s treated with iron tablets and by eating iron-rich foods’
Hospital: It comes after earlier this week Lucy-Jo told how she had received two blood transfusions because her hemoglobin (HB) levels had dropped to a ‘dangerously low’ level
Lucy-Jo shared photos to her social page at the time of the transfusion being administered while she lay in a hospital bed wearing a gown.
The soap star, who revealed at that time that doctors still didn’t know what was wrong with her, said: ‘Well it’s been a strange few days…. I’m sorry I’ve been so quiet on here…but I was rushed to A&E on Thursday afternoon needing a blood transfusion!’
She continued: ‘I actually ended up needing 2, my HB levels were that dangerously low! But thanks to the most amazing NHS staff at Salford Royal, I am on the mend. A big shout out to Robert Jackson and Freddy, both of you made me feel so at ease and you both took such good care of me on the emergency assessment unit…. as did your nurses… I can’t thank you all enough for looking after me. I’ll be forever grateful.’
Lucy went on to explain that doctors would be carrying out further tests to try to determine a diagnosis. She added: ‘I’m booked in for more tests next week to get to the bottom of all of this… I’m at home now resting…. And just trying to build up my energy again!
‘Sending you all lots of love…. And this is not a ‘feel sorry for me’ post, this is to make you all aware that ‘self care’ is so important in the crazy world we all live in right now.’ The TV star added hashtags that again emphasised she was ‘grateful’ to the NHS for her treatment.
Lucy, who is best known for playing Donna-Marie Quinn on Hollyoaks, first started o on the soap in 2018 and filmed her final scenes earlier this year.
She previously played Rosie Trevanion in the hit ITV drama Wild at Heart between 2006 and 2013 and before this she was Katy Harris on Coronation Street between 2002 and 2005.
Lucy tied the knot with her Corrie co-star Alan Halsall in 2009 and they were married for nine years before splitting in 2018. They welcomed their daughter Sienna-Rae in September 2013.
She is now in a relationship with Lewis Devine and the couple welcomed their first child together in February 2020, Carter, now three.
Over the summer, Lucy-Jo revealed she feared her son was going to die in a terrifying health scare.
She rushed Carter to Ormskirk Hospital in Lancashire when he was 18-months-old due to his serious nut allergy.
Taking to Instagram, Lucy-Jo revealed Carter went into anaphylactic shock after eating a snack containing traces of nuts.
‘Carter was 18 months. He was in the trolley, eating snacks while I was getting tea with Sienna, and he suddenly looked at me and I knew something was severely wrong,’ Lucy Jo recalled.
‘He went grey, his mouth went blue and he started to go all limp. He was struggling to catch his breath. God did my heart sink, I literally grabbed him out of the trolley, abandoned the shopping and Sienna and I just ran to my car.
‘I strapped him in his car seat (which was awful because at this point he was going in and out of consciousness and his skin was going all mottled and I couldn’t hold him close as I had to drive to A&E.
‘It was 10 minutes but it felt like a lifetime, my poor Sienna was crying in the back asking me if he was going to die.’
Lucy-Jo said she was trying to reassure her daughter Sienna, now nine, as she made her way to hospital.
‘I kept trying to reassure her he was fine but I couldn’t stop the tears, I honestly thought we were losing him,’ she said.
‘I kept talking to him, telling him to stay with us and he was trying god love him! I remember pulling up outside A&E and I just ran into the hospital cradling carter with Sienna by my side and screaming ‘he’s not breathing’.
Worst nightmare: Over the summer, Lucy-Jo revealed she feared her son was going to die in a terrifying health scare
Exes: Lucy tied the knot with her Corrie co-star Alan Halsall in 2009 and they were married for nine years before splitting in 2018
‘The nurses flew out of every door and took my baby out of my arms and took him straight into a private room….
‘After that it all felt like a blur…. Nurse after nurse came in, drs round him, oxygen mask on, adrenalin in his leg, honestly the room was full of nurses trying to bring him round! It was the most terrifying moment of my life.’
Lucy-Jo revealed she carries Carter’s epi-pen, which contains medication block the progression of the allergic response in the body, everywhere and has to inform every restaurant of his nut allergy as well as reading the labels of every food product.
She said: ‘Thank you to the amazing staff at Ormskirk Hospital for saving our boys life. We will be forever grateful.’
