During last night’s episode of Real Housewives of Orange County Dr. Jen Armstrong spoke about her “long and painful” journey with a bone tumor in her femur. How’s she doing now?
Jen developed the tumor in her 20s. She underwent multiple surgeries and spent a lot of time in a wheelchair. They had to take out part of her bone and replace the bone marrow with cement.
In order to maintain health and mobility in her leg, Jen has to do a special workout every day to get blood to flow. She can’t do things like jogging because the pounding would be too harsh.
She’s in pain every day, which she manages with physical therapy and working out. If she doesn’t work out every day, the leg can get stiff and the pain can get really bad.
During episode 8 of Season 16, Jen experienced radiating pain in her leg while accompanying Heather Dubrow on a trip to scout out potential Cabo real estate. She tried to mask the pain while they were viewing an $8 million land lot on the coast of the Sea of Cortez.
She went to the gym once she got back to the villa to do her daily workout. Usually, she’s able to work out her leg earlier. While on an elliptical machine, Jen called her husband Rhyne. She told him she’d been in excruciating and debilitating pain since 9 a.m. She felt like she was having a breakdown, and wanted some sympathy and consolation. Rhyne, however, seemed a bit cold and told her that she’d get better tomorrow.
She said that she wanted to know that she was “loved, protected, and important,” from Rhyne, but she didn’t get that from him, which made her feel “completely alone.”
Jen opened up to Heather later at dinner about how she cried for an hour because she didn’t feel supported. Heather advised her to make her husband more of a priority.
