RHOC’s Vicki Gunvalson's Quotes About Her Health Through the Years

Vicki Gunvalson has had her fair share of health problems throughout the years.

In August 2024, The Real Housewives of Orange County alum made headlines for her health when she revealed that she had been diagnosed with a “deadly” infection and only had a “10 to 20 percent” chance of survival.

“There’s a lot of hours missing in my life because I go, like, amnesia,” Gunvalson said during an episode of “My Friend, My Soulmate, My Podcast” at the time, noting that she went to the hair salon “as usual” earlier that month. “There seems to be about an hour or two that I was missing, and I don’t know where I was. So I got to the office … I had a client coming in, and she said I was talking gibberish, and I wrote an email out and the email didn’t make sense.”

Ultimately, Gunvalson was taken to the ER and had a “massive infection.”

“It was actually sepsis, but it was pneumonia,” Gunvalson’s boyfriend, Michael Smith, explained. “And what happened — and I’m no doctor, but when they explained it — is that when your body is fighting that big of an infection and that dangerous of an infection, your whole body attacks it, which affects the brain and everything else in your body because your body sends everything it has to fight it.”

Gunvalson made a full recovery, but nearly a year later, in July 2025, Gunvalson claimed that she may have contracted a parasite while she was in Morocco for The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip.

“My stomach’s bloated, I don’t feel good. I feel tired,” she said on an episode of Sirius XM’s “Jeff Lewis Live.” “Where I’m at now is, I’m like, ‘Why do I always feel sluggish?’ I don’t go poop. Like, it’s very hard for me.”

Keep scrolling to learn about Gunvalson’s health struggles throughout the years:

Diagnosed With Ear Tumor as a Child

When Gunvalson was a child, she was diagnosed with an inner-ear tumor called cholesteatoma and was forced to undergo surgery to remove the tumor. While that worked for several years, in 2018, the cholesteatoma returned and she had to undergo another surgery.

“Having a blockage cleared from my inner ear caused by the cholesteatoma,” the reality star wrote via Instagram alongside a photo of her lying in a hospital bed beside her ex Steve Lodge. “I hope to be back at the office this afternoon. Glad I have my driver @stevelodge_oc with me 😊❤️.”

Her Plastic Surgery

Since her debut on RHOC in 2006, Gunvalson has been open about her plastic surgery journey, which has included multiple facelifts, Botox, fillers, a nose job, eye work and breast augmentations.

In 2018, Gunvalson shared with Entertainment Tonight that she told Lodge that she was “done” with plastic surgery.

“I promised Steve I’m done. I did because it is what it is,” she said.

Having Her Uterus Taken Out

In November 2021, Gunvalson shared that she “had cancer” and had her “whole f***ing uterus taken out.”

“[I’m] going through a f***ing tough time right now,” she added on Sirius XM’s “Jeff Lewis Live” podcast.

A few months later, Gunvalson clarified that she did have a full hysterectomy, but it was because of “cancer cells in [her] uterus and cervix.”

“They took it out — no chemo, no radiation,” she told Page Six in February 2022. “It wasn’t a two-year battle, like they misconstrued. It was two years ago.”

A ‘Deadly’ Infection

Gunvalson shared in August 2024 that she was diagnosed with a “deadly” infection and had a low chance of survival.

Although she had amnesia from that day, Gunvalson said she went to the hair salon “as usual” and then to her office, where she started “talking gibberish.” Since the client was a “retired ER physician,” he noticed something was off and told her boyfriend’s daughter Olivia she was “possibly having a stroke.”

“I don’t remember anything and [Olivia] took me to the hospital,” she said on an episode of “My Friend, My Soulmate, My Podcast,” adding that she ended up being misdiagnosed with a sinus infection.

Smith said that he returned home and Gunvalson was taking a bubble bath.

“I walk in and she’s pretty much passed out,” he recalled. “I grabbed her, pulled her out of the water, put her in bed. The doctor said she just needed to sleep, so I put her in bed and she slept literally 13, 14 hours straight.”

Smith thought Gunvalson had a stroke because she was so disoriented when she woke up, which led to him bringing her to the hospital where she was quickly put into an exam room.

“She had a massive infection,” Smith explained. “It was actually sepsis, but it was pneumonia. And what happened — and I’m no doctor, but when they explained it — is that when your body is fighting that big of an infection and that dangerous of an infection, your whole body attacks it, which affects the brain and everything else in your body because your body sends everything it has to fight it.”

Gunvalson spent a lot of time processing the “trauma” from what had happened.

“I cry a lot. And Michael keeps saying, ‘Why do you keep crying?’ I don’t have an answer,” she shared, with Smith assuring fans that Gunvalson is “doing better” and “will be fine.”

Contracting a Parasite

In July 2025, Gunvalson claimed that she believed that she developed a similar parasite as Brandi Glanville after returning from a 2023 vacation to Morocco for The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip together.

“My stomach’s bloated, I don’t feel good,” she said on an episode of SiriusXM’s “Jeff Lewis Live.” “I feel tired. Where I’m at now is, I’m like, ‘Why do I always feel sluggish?’ I don’t go poop. Like, it’s very hard for me. It might be once a week, if that. It’s a pellet that comes out. That’s it.”

Gunvalson said she undergoes colonics treatment “three times a week” and was told her gut is “loaded with parasites.” Doctors put her on Ivermectin — but it is allegedly “not killing” the parasite.

“We all got sick when we went to Morocco,” she noted. “It’s been four years and Brandi’s face — she’s got a parasite. It moves. It goes into her mouth. It’s bad.”