“Real Housewives of Dallas” Star LeeAnn Locken Had Surgery for Her Ruptured Breast Implants: 'It Was Bad'
Locken said her implants ruptured because of a flesh-eating bacteria she contracted during season 1 of the Bravo series
LeeAnne Locken is getting candid about the surgical and cosmetic procedures she had done this week.
In an Instagram post shared on Friday, the former Real Housewives of Dallas star, 56, shared a picture of herself that appears to have been taken right before her procedures began on Tuesday.
Locken smiled in the image, laying down on what appeared to be an operating table. She wore a surgical cap and a paper gown with pen markings visible on her neck.
In the caption, Locken explained why she was having surgery done to remove breast implants after viewers watched her get them on Season 1 of RHOD.
Related: 'RHOD' Star LeeAnne Locken's Ups and Downs, from Overcoming Trauma to Clashing with Costars
"Before you start judging UNDERSTAND.. I HAD NO CHOICE!" the reality star wrote. "Both of my implants had been ruptured and the severe scar tissue has been hurting me for years!"
Locken's carousel of photos featured a screenshot of a 2017 article from Entertainment Tonight that explained that she returned to work almost immediately after her procedure, leaving little healing time.
The Bravo star said she contracted a flesh-eating bacteria while on a cast trip during her recovery process and almost died.
"It took three months to actually stop the disease from eating my skin, for the necrosis to stop … It took probably seven months before some of my organs even began to function normally," she told ET at the time, noting that the bacteria would eat at her surgical stitches.
In an Instagram Story viewed by PEOPLE on Friday, Locken said that the necrosis from the flesh-eating bacteria is what caused her implants to rupture.
"It was bad," she said of her scar tissue and pain before surgery in her Story. "The doctor even said that my right implant was actually attached up in my armpit and that most of my pec muscle was like, just eaten alive with scar tissue."
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Locken said in the post on her grid that she also took advantage of the fact that she needed to be under anesthesia to have CO2 laser cosmetic surgery done on her face, neck and chest because she wanted to try it.
"It’s a NEW YEAR so I’m starting with a NEW ME!!" Locken wrote near the end of the post's caption. Other photos and videos in her Instagram story showed off her face after the procedure was done.
Locken exited The Real Housewives of Dallas after season 4, and the show was not renewed after Season 5.
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