This Morning's resident life coach Michelle Elman has shared devastating news with her followers, revealing she requires another brain surgery - her sixteenth major operation.
Medical Challenges and Diagnosis
The 31-year-old relationship expert underwent an MRI scan on Tuesday which revealed two pressing issues requiring surgical intervention. Doctors discovered a cyst has formed on her brain, while the magnet implanted to manage her condition needs replacing.
Michelle was born with hydrocephalus, a condition characterised by excess cerebrospinal fluid in the brain. Medical professionals later made the shocking discovery that she had also been born with a brain tumour. The magnet in her brain plays a crucial role in controlling fluid flow and maintaining proper brain function.
Emotional Revelation to Followers
The daytime television star took to Instagram to document her difficult appointment, sharing openly with her community of supporters. "My life has been high highs and low lows atm and this morning was a miserable one with lots of bad news that I'm not prepared to deal with," she confessed in her emotional post.
She later clarified the situation: "Yesterday I found out I need another brain surgery. I have a cyst in my brain again and also the magnet in my brain needs replacing."
While describing the procedure as "not urgent but needed," Michelle now faces the challenging task of scheduling the operation to cause minimal disruption to her professional life and commitments. "Inevitably I will have to pause my life and go deal with this," she acknowledged, suggesting the surgery would likely occur next year while maintaining "business as usual" until then.
Lifetime of Medical Struggles
The presenter has endured an extraordinary medical history, having undergone fifteen surgeries within the first twenty years of her life. Her complex health journey includes operations to address an obstructed bowel and punctured intestine alongside her neurological procedures.
Michelle expressed her reluctance to discuss health matters, explaining she has spent her "whole life making my world bigger than a hospital bed." Despite the latest setback, she maintains remarkable perspective: "My medical record is rarely simple so ultimately I'm doing my best to make peace with it all and to be honest I have lived a great life and really milked every moment I've had in this world so can't complain."
Previous Near-Death Experience
During a 2018 appearance on Loose Women, Michelle shared a profound experience of temporarily dying during brain surgery at age eleven. She described flat-lining during a procedure when doctors were running tests, recalling the sensation of floating above her hospital bed.
She characterised death as "peaceful and calm," hoping to reassure others that the experience isn't as frightening as commonly believed. "I still remember floating above my bed," she recounted. "What's really nice to know is it's a really calm sensation when you die, and that's what I'd like to tell people because it gives you a bit solace that even in the last moments it's really peaceful and really calm."
Michelle noted that while the experience felt like five minutes to her, medical staff confirmed she had only been clinically dead for mere seconds. "I didn't talk about it for years but it makes me sound a bit crazy," she admitted.
Personal Life Challenges
The life coach's medical news comes after personal heartbreak in April 2023, when she discovered her partner of three years had betrayed her just hours after their engagement.
Speaking to Daily Mail about the emotional turmoil, Michelle reflected: "There were points where I was like Why am I not more angry? Don't worry, it will come. I just wasn't at that point. I think what probably was most shocking to my friends and family is that anger came very late. And it also wasn't a lot."
She added with professional insight: "Especially as a life coach, anger is one of the emotions I'm most comfortable with. And it just was the one that just I didn't feel as angry as I thought I would be."
As Michelle prepares for her upcoming surgery, she continues to inspire followers with her resilience and determination to live fully despite ongoing health challenges.
