Exclusive Interview
RHOD’s D’Andra Simmons Reveals ‘Severe’ COVID Symptoms After Hospitalization: ‘I Wasn’t Breathing’
RHOD’s D’Andra Simmons is now happily resting at home after a battle with COVID-19, but at one point, her condition was extremely ‘severe’.
The Real Housewives of Dallas‘ D’Andra Simmons, 51, is thankful for the front line workers who saved her life after a scary battle with Coronavirus this past holiday season. “I was actually in a COVID ward,” D’Andra told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY during an episode of TVTalk on Instagram Live on Jan. 18. “It was three nurses to one COVID patient and I went from being the most severe to the middle to OK, it’s now time to go home. I was in a place where I was on oxygen.”
The Hard Morning, Good Night skincare and Ultimate Living founder first knew something was off after recovering at home from ankle surgery, so she called her doctor right away. “I came home and Christmas Day I wasn’t feeling so great, so the next day, the 26th, I woke up with a temperature,” D’Andra shared. “I never have a temperature ever and the temperature kept going up and up and I couldn’t get it down with Tylenol, I couldn’t get it down with any medications, Advil — Anything, Asprin, anything. I called my doctor and she said, “Well, let’s get you a COVID test,” and I thought, ‘I don’t have COVID! There’s no way! There’s no way, I don’t have COVID!’ and of course then, I got the COVID test and the next morning at 5 a.m., my test came back and then she called me.”
Once admitted to the hospital, D’Andra struggled as she lied there without husband Jeremy Lock. “The problem with me is I wasn’t breathing,” D’Andra revealed. “I was having a hard time breathing and I had the pulse oximeter. Mine was below 85. Below 90 is not good and that’s when I went to the hospital and they decided to admit me which was the right decision due to the temperature and the breathing. I was on oxygen and came home with oxygen and luckily I haven’t had to use it since I’ve been home.”
Although her cast mates Kary Brittingham, 50, and Kameron Westcott, 30, gave her a hard time about her COVID anxiety in the Jan. 12 episode, they’ve been supporting her. “I really want to give a shout out to both of those girls,” D’Andra said. “Even though you see Kary and I are obviously having a little bit of a rocky road this year, Kary called Jeremy every day and checked on me. Because of my leg, I needed short short pajamas so they went to Neiman’s and got me short short pajamas. Kam and Kary and Tiffany [Moon] all 3 of them, so they were very concerned. They checked on me every day and they texted me everyday.”
Now that she’s fully recovered at home, D’Andra is trying to help others so they don’t have to go through what she did. “I also decided on my own to do the Regeneron study trial because I don’t have children and I don’t have children,” D’Andra revealed. “There are [a third of] 15 million people worldwide that are going to get this drug and I thought I could use my body for science because I don’t have to worry about going back to little ones at home. I was a lab rat and I actually had a really bad reaction to that but because they were taking good care of me, they were able to bring my temperature down and things like that. I’m still doing it! I think it’s 59 days. This morning I had the research person come to my house. They come to my house every few days to take blood, nose swabs.”
The Real Housewives of Dallas airs Tuesday nights at 9pm on Bravo.
