HGTV’s Home Town star Erin Napier has experienced her fair share of health scares over the years. From mysterious ​symptoms to a hospitalization for surgery, Erin managed to come out smiling after all her medical issues. ​But what ​illnesses has she faced?

Erin Napier Suffered From a Perforated Appendix

While most people are immediately aware when their appendix bursts due to the immense amount of pain it causes, that’s not the case for everyone, including Erin. The HGTV star experienced debilitating symptoms that would knock her out of commission for days at a time.

“In the beginning, it would be 24 hours of terrible stomach pain and a low-grade fever, and then it would disappear,” Erin told People in an October 2018 interview. “It became two days, then three.”

Despite undergoing several CT scans and other medical tests, the doctors could never find the reason behind her pain. Eventually, Erin’s OB/GYN suggested an exploratory surgery in 2014 which revealed the problem. Erin was suffering from a perforated appendix, and over the years, it would burst and then heal itself. This left her with large amounts of scar tissue bonding her organs together and threatened her ability to have children with her husband, Ben Napier.

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“The first time it happened, when I was 19, it just partially ruptured,” Erin explained. “Not enough to kill me, just enough to make me sick.”

Doctors successfully removed Erin’s appendix, which also solved the issues with her stomach pains. Thankfully, the medical issue didn’t affect her fertility and she and Ben eventually welcomed two daughters.

Why Did Erin Napier Have Throat Surgery?

Erin’s health challenges unfortunately didn’t end with her perforated appendix. In May 2022, Erin shared on Instagram that she had recently been hospitalized to undergo throat surgery.

“Staying tonight in the hospital after a throat procedure, and feeling so cared for by an old friend… I’ve never been so happy to see him as I was tonight, expecting a bowl of chicken noodle soup but getting a needed visit with an old friend too,” the Home Town host captioned the photo of herself next to a longtime family friend.

Ben Napier and Erin Napier pose during a visit to People Now.
Gary Gershoff / Getty Images

Erin didn’t immediately reveal the reason she had throat surgery, and it wasn’t until almost a year later in January 2023 that the Mississippi native shared why she underwent the medical procedure.

“I was hospitalized with an abscessed tonsil during this block, so this episode and several others are about to have me with a weird voice and super puffy faced from IV steroids,” Erin wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter.)

How Have Erin Napier’s Health Scares Affected Her Mental Health?

Erin and her husband Ben have handled several different health scares over the years, and Erin admitted that it caused her to fear any time she or her family gets sick.

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“I spend an inordinate amount of my time avoiding illness. I scan Facebook each morning, looking for who’s sick so I can avoid them for the next 10 days,” Erin wrote on her blog in 2012. “It’s a mental problem, really, my fear of getting sick. I’m not talking about a cold, but the flu, the stomach virus… We’ve been together for 8 years and neither of us has ever had the flu in that time… This sounds incredibly stupid — there are people out there with far worse ailments and diseases than the common flu, but it’s hugely frightening to me.”