By Jessica Wedemeyer
11:22am PDT, Oct 18, 2023
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During a mid-October 2023 interview with "Extra," Amanza Smith revealed that she's "still recovering" following her monthlong hospitalization for a blood infection that led to osteomyelitis — a major bone infection — earlier this year.
"I'm good. I'm still recovering. I'm slower than I used to be. Everything hurts. I'm still on a lot of medication, so that's kind of getting redundant. But I'm very grateful to be alive and just working through all the kinks now with my new spine [and doing] physical therapy," the "Selling Sunset" star told "Extra" correspondent Melvin Robert.
She went on to detail how she realized over the summer that something was seriously wrong. The reality star also revealed how her near-death experience has changed her.
Keep reading for more…
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Warning signs
Amanza Smith's health began rapidly declining earlier this year following "a normal girl's night" with Mary Fitzgerald at her "Selling Sunset" co-star's home.
"It was just a normal night. I woke up the next day and I couldn't get out of bed — I couldn't step onto my feet because my back was just in so much pain," she recalled, adding that she spent "about a month off and on just really kind of limping around and not really knowing what was up."
"I thought, 'Okay, I'm in my mid-40s — my back's gone out, it's time, I'm getting old.' I went to the emergency room once before I was actually admitted, and they did a scan and told me I was having a back spasm. So they sent me home with steroids, muscle relaxers and some really strong ibuprofen that helped for a bit," she told "Extra."
"Then it got exponentially worse to the point where I couldn't walk. For two days I literally crawled on my hands and knees to go to the bathroom," Amanza continued.
A friend ultimately convinced her to go back to the ER: "My friend had come over to help me take care of [my two] kids, and she was like, 'You're going to the hospital tomorrow. If you're not ready by 9:30 a.m., I'm calling the ambulance. This is ridiculous — you're in so much pain," she recalled. "So I went, they did a scan and they admitted me, and I was there for 31 days because come to find out I had a blood infection that had turned into osteomyelitis, which is when it attacks the bone. So it was sitting on my vertebrae and literally just deteriorating my vertebrae."
Keep reading for more on her scary hospitalization…
A near-death experience
Amanza Smith told "Extra" that she almost died multiple times while undergoing treatment: "[My doctors] told me had I waited one or two more days, I might not be here to be talking about this, it was so severe," the "Selling Sunset" star said, adding that during her 31-day hospitalization, she had two major spine surgeries and "a couple of blood transfusions" that nearly killed her. (She almost died during one blood transfusion and later nearly perished during a surgery that was "supposed to be between two and four hours [but] ended up being six hours.")
"I was supposed to get discharged at one point, but in the middle of the night, I spiked a fever of 105. My blood pressure dropped, my heart rate went through the roof, and at the time, I was just sort of going through the motions and doing whatever they told me to do to stay in a positive headspace," she recalled. "There were multiple people who came to visit me in the hospital that I don't remember being there. I was like 'Wait, I thought we just FaceTimed.' It was just sort of all a blur."
Now, Amanza has titanium in her spine — "some screws and rods," she said — and is just "grateful to be here."
"I had a really tough time," she went on, noting that "it was definitely a whirlwind of a summer."
Keep reading for her big takeaway from the experience…
Learning her lesson
Amanza Smith told "Extra" that she "wasn't even fully aware of how severe" her situation was until it was time to leave the hospital.
"They told me I almost passed away a couple of times," the "Selling Sunset" star recalled. "I'm still sort of processing everything. It's been a few months now that I've been out, but it's really eye opening as far as just staying on top of your health — and when something is that severe pain-wise, go get it checked out. You never know what it could be."
"I'm just really grateful that I got there before it was too late," she said.
Keep reading to see how the experience affected her mindset…
A new outlook on life
Amanza Smith has a new outlook on life, she told "Extra" correspondent Melvin Robert: "There are moments where I'm like, 'Okay, I'm definitely supposed to be here.' I feel like that's been solidified. I just feel more motivated to try to figure out what it is that I'm here for. I feel like this was such an eyeopener that I want to make sure that I do the most that I can with the days that I've been given," said the "Selling Sunset" star.
"I was already a really positive person anyway, but this really kind of kicked me into high gear as far as making sure that I try to use this platform that I've been given for the better good, to get a message out, whatever it is," she explained. "I just want to try to do the most that I can because I feel like I've been given a second chance at life, and it would be really unfortunate if I just, like, let that go to waste."
"So that's motivating but also feels like a lot of pressure on myself at the same time whilst trying to heal and trying to make up for the time that I lost over the summer. … It's like a big chunk of my life just went away, so I've just been trying to play catchup and it's been a really strange summer," she said.
