At age 55, Lee had a stroke but initially thought she was tired and stressed from filming her reality show and working as a doctor.
When dermatologist Sandra Lee, a.k.a. Dr. Pimple Popper, first started feeling especially tired and out of sorts one night this past November, she wasn’t sure what was going on.
She had a hot flash while filming her reality show earlier that day, “Dr. Pimple Popper” on Lifetime, which was unusual for her, and noticed some trouble swallowing while eating soup for dinner.
“I was taping the show, and, you know, it’s a stressful, long day,” Lee said during a April 15, 2026, segment of the TODAY show. “At the end of the day, I was feeling crabby, as I usually am, because it’s a long day, but I was having trouble swallowing.”
Lee decided to go to bed early so she could feel her best to see patients and film her eponymous reality show the next day.
But during the night, Lee was restless and felt shooting nerve pains down her legs. And when she tried to get up, she felt noticeably weaker on her left side. She stumbled around and tried a neurology test she remembered from medical school.
Holding out both arms in front of her, “I just see (one) hand sort of crumble,” she said.
Lee noticed she wasn’t as articulate as usual and felt like she was was stumbling over her words. She thought she might be having a panic attack, but still tried to push through and get to work.
While filming her show, Lee stays with her parents, who are also both medical professionals. She told them her symptoms — and they urged her to go to the ER just to be safe.
Lee took their advice and went to the hospital. As soon as she told them her symptoms, “they just swept me right in,” she says.
And Lee was shocked to learn she’d had a stroke.
Shocked and Scared
A stroke happens when part of the blood supply to the brain is blocked, reduced or leaks out, the Mayo Clinic explains. Without that blood, brain cells begin to die quickly.
Hearing that you’ve had a stroke, especially at the age of 55, is a very scary experience, Lee says.
She did have a few risk factors before the stroke, including high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Her father also previously had a mini-stroke that just lasted a few minutes.
The symptoms of a stroke can include those listed in the BEFAST acronym, TODAY.com explained previously:
- Balance issues or unsteadiness
- Eyes, meaning sudden vision changes
- Facial weakness or drooping
- Arm or leg weakness
- Slurred speech
- Time. Call 911 immediately to get stroke treatment as quickly as possible, which improves outcomes.
Recovery
Now in recovery, Lee is getting used to her new normal, but says she still doesn’t feel 100% like herself.
There are moments where she forgets about the stroke, but the signs are still there. She notices them more when she’s overworked, nervous or tired. While other people might not recognize the lingering effects, she does.
“I still have sometimes when I get stressed, a little bit of a speech difficulty,” Lee said.
As a surgeon who prides herself on her ability to use her hands, Lee says, it’s been hard to adjust to the changes in her grip. It’s something that’s part of her identity, she says, so it’s been hard to deal with that.
Although she’s anxious to get better quickly, Lee also knows that part of the process is retraining your brain and body to perform the tasks you’re used to doing. In her arm, for instance, the muscles are still there, but she needs to find a new way to communicate with them.
It’s been hard for her to take a break, but it just didn’t feel right to treat patients when she didn’t feel like herself.
Lee is taking low doses of medications to manage her blood pressure and cholesterol, and says physical therapy and occupational therapy have been crucial.
A Change in Perspective
Having a stroke in her 50s changed Lee’s perspective and made her realize what was really important in her life.
She’d never really thought about old age, she says, she just assumed it would happen. But, as a mom, she wants to be around to see her grandkids and recognizes that she needs to take care of herself in order to make it to that phase of life.
And she wants her story to inspire others to get checked out and prioritize their health. Too many of us, especially young people, try to simply tough out health problems, Lee says. And, especially in the Asian community, there is a stigma around showing weakness, she adds.
“Even as a doctor, I can recognize these things, but as a woman, being young, thinking like it’s not going to happen to you. … I tried to sleep on it,” she says. And she urges others not to wait to get checked out for stroke symptoms the way she did.
With an ischemic stroke, you can be treated and potentially avoid long-term effects if you catch it within four hours, she explained. “I think I missed that window, and that really is key,” Lee said.
And it’s important not to dismiss signs that you might have high blood pressure or high cholesterol, she says, because taking care of yourself now could mean avoiding something serious in the future.
