Mama June's Doctors Are Worried About Her Detached Retina 'That's Been Away From Blood Supply'
Mama June Shannon is preparing to go under the knife once again — the sixth time in the past year-and-a-half.
The Mama June: From Not to Hot star is no stranger to surgery. Last year, the reality star debuted her shocking body transformation after she underwent an extensive series of surgeries that include the insertion of a gastric sleeve, breast augmentation and skin removal on her “turkey neck,” “bat wings,” and stomach — an area where doctors removed 9 lbs. of loose skin.
Now, Mama June — who has long suffered with partial blindness — is hopeful that part of her vision will be restored as she readies for an eye operation following her retina detachment.
“My doctor called and we have to be here for five weeks,” Mama June, 38, tells her loved ones in a PEOPLE exclusive sneak peek of Friday’s episode of her WE tv reality series. “The deal of the matter is: I can’t leave. So, I mean, tomorrow morning I go in for surgery. There is no guarantee that all this surgery that I’m doing tomorrow could do it.”
“They’re worried about the retina that’s been away from blood supply for a few weeks now, so they don’t really know how much blood supply is there,” she explains. “They could reattach it and the little bit that I see now of light, I could totally go black just like this eye. And there could be no more hope for it.”
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To help with her recovery post-surgery, Mama June must “lay flat” and have her head in a massage chair.
“The doctor said it’s going to help keep my retina attached, so I don’t have any other choice but to do what they say,” she shares.
While Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson is optimistic that the surgery will “go wonderful” ahead of Mama June’s upcoming pageant, the mother of four tells her youngest child that it could potentially be sidelined.
“Right now I have so much on my plate that the pageant is the least of my concern right now,” says Mama June. “There’s too much going on.”
“I have to say, I’ve had five surgeries in the last year and a half and this will be my sixth surgery. But to me this is the most important and the most biggest. I mean, I’ll be able to see the baby,” she says, referencing meeting pregnant daughter Lauryn “Pumpkin” Shannon‘s baby girl. “Tomorrow morning I go in for surgery and I have to be there at 7 o’clock, so I would like to say goodbye to y’all because honestly, the little bit that I can see y’all, I may not be able to see anything after.”
Mama June: From Not to Hot airs Fridays (9 p.m. ET) on WE tv.