Francia Raisa Says She + Selena Gomez Suffered Depression After Kidney Transplant
Physically speaking, Francia Raisa's kidney donation to BFF Selena Gomez in 2017 amounted to a miracle, and helped Gomez recover from the life-threatening symptoms of her lupus.
Emotionally, though, it was a bit of a different story.
Raisa has explained in a new video interview with Self that the surgical process was intensely taxing, and said that even though she was warned about potential consequences, they eventually hit her like a ton of bricks.
“[I was told in a pre-surgery conversation that] it’s going to be hard, the recipient is going to glow and she’s going to recover a lot faster than the donor because she’s getting something she needs and you are losing something you don’t need to lose. It’s going to be hard,” she said. “And it was hard...Selena and I both went through a depression. She had some complications with hers and has bigger scars than I do that wasn't expected.”
Still, Raisa said both she and Gomez have learned to embrace their new marks as battle wounds.
“Your scars don’t define you. It’s a part of your story. It’s a part of the story that makes you special and you different,” she said.
Raisa previously told Harry that she was bed-ridden for months after the procedure, and was sapped of life's most simple pleasures.
"My doctor said I couldn't move for two months," she said. “I couldn’t do anything active. All I could do was walk. That was very hard for me, and I have a dog. Every day the thing I look forward to is drinking my coffee, and walking, and I couldn’t do that. It was really, really hard.”
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