Katie Piper made her comeback to the ‘Loose Women’ panel on Wednesday after a hiatus from the show for several weeks.
The 40-year-old presenter shared that she underwent surgery on her left eye due to persistent and ‘painful’ issues over the past 18 months.
Katie explained that her eye was sewn shut during the surgery to facilitate healing after an eye infection, reducing the risk of potentially losing her left eye.
Welcoming her return, fellow panelist Kaye Adams expressed: said: ‘Hello stranger. We haven’t seen you for five or six weeks. And at that time, you were saying you were getting a procedure.’
Katie explained: ‘Yeah, so I had a planned procedure called a tarsorrhaphy, which is a semi-permanent closure of the eye. So it’s an operation done in theatre and your eye is sort of fully or partially stitched up, reported Daily Mail.
She continued: ‘So I’ve had quite a lot of problems with my eye in the last year-and-a-half. I don’t like to go on about it because there’s always somebody worse off!’
Kaye cut in to say: ‘But do you know what Katie, you never go on about anything. That’s the incredible thing about you, you’re just so stoic, it’s so incredible.’
Katie added: ‘It’s been quite painful, so it’s quite a relief for me to finally have it stitched up because it’s a lot more comfortable.’
She clarified: ‘It’s not permanent, it’s probably going to be like a year like this and then hopefully I can have it opened.’
Describing the procedure, she said: ‘It was a bit like being pregnant because you feel a bit dizzy and nauseous.’
‘And it’s difficult when the other eye is trying to operate because it does tug a bit. But that does subside and then you get used to it.’
Katie went on: ‘I had the operation a month ago now, so I’m okay. I’m still wearing a six-inch high heel!’