Singer Toni Braxton recently opened up about her “traumatic” and life-threatening medical scare.
Braxton lives with the most common form of Lupus, systemic lupus erythematosus, and recently underwent a heart procedure due to complications from the disease.
The R&B artist revealed she underwent the serious procedure last September after 80% of the main artery in her heart became blocked.
Braxton told PEOPLE she had been hospitalized “more times than I care to admit” due to the disease, adding that she knows the importance of staying on top of routine urine and blood tests to assess the autoimmune disease affecting her organs.
But she admits she didn’t stay on top of it last year.
“I kept putting it off thinking, ‘Oh, I’m fine. I’ll be okay.’ But my doctor was persistent, and I went to get tested in the last week of September. I did a specialized test, and they looked at my heart and saw some abnormalities,” Braxton told PEOPLE. “I found out that I needed a coronary stent. My left main coronary artery was 80% blocked. The doctors told me I could’ve had a massive heart attack; I would not have survived.”
“It was a traumatic moment for me. I was in shock,” she continued. “I remember that day because my chest was aching often, just hurting. And I thought I was just sad because, unfortunately, my sister had just passed, and I thought, ‘Wow, I’m really aching in my heart for my sister.’ And come to find out, of course, I was sad about my sister, but I also had underlying health issues. It was my body talking to me, telling me something’s not quite right.”
Two days after her screenings, the “Un-break My Heart” singer underwent emergency surgery to insert a stent in her heart. She remained hospitalized for a few days as she recovered.
“It was really a scary moment,” the Grammy-winning artist said. “Had I not gotten that test, my life would’ve been different.”
“I look at it like it was a blessing in disguise for me because now, putting off tests? Oh no, I will not put off tests,” Braxton laughed. “If all I have to do for my lupus and my kidney health is pee in a cup, I can pee in a cup. How many times do you need me to pee? If all I gotta do is get my arm pricked for some blood? Oh yes, I can do that. How many vials do you need?”
Braxton has since partnered with Aurinia’s “Get Uncomfortable” campaign ahead of May’s Lupus Awareness Month.
Braxton encourages Black and Asian women to check on their health because they are four times more likely to develop lupus nephritis, and the risk of death is three times greater for people with it.
“It’s important to get those screenings — simple things,” she said. “The goal here is long life and old age.”
“I know we’re all scared sometimes to go to the doctor. Especially for me having lupus, I was scared; I didn’t want to know. But I find that knowing is empowering, and it gets my doctors on top of my lupus and my kidney health. And that’s the most important thing,” the music star added, noting that she now gets tested every three months.
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