A professional dancer since the age of 15, Julianne Hough
is used to performing through pain—like the time in Las Vegas when she
landed funny and fractured her foot, or when she won a London trophy
despite having shingles. "Julianne just doesn't complain," says her
mother, Mariann Nelson, 51. "She carries on." Still, after completing
her jitterbug with partner Cody Linley on the Oct. 21 episode of
Dancing with the Stars,
Hough knew her body had taken all it could stand: Hunched over
backstage with abdominal pains so severe "it felt like a knife was being
stabbed in me," she recalls, Hough "curled up in a little ball. It was
awful."
And serious: Although Hough initially tried to dismiss
producers' pleas that she go to the hospital ("I was like, 'It's just a
bad stomach ache'"), an ultrasound the next morning not only revealed a
cyst on her left ovary, but also massive amounts of scar tissue outside
of her uterus—a condition known as endometriosis (for more details, see
box)—and that the tissue had spread to her appendix and right hip.
Without immediate surgery, the 20-year-old Hough learned, her
appendix could rupture; even more frightening, if left untreated, the
endometriosis could leave her infertile. "I know more than anything I
want to be a mom and have kids," she says. "That's so important to me."
And so even though Hough hated the idea of leaving Linley mid-season,
she underwent laparoscopic surgery a week later. "I was so scared," she
says. "But I have a very strong threshold for pain, so if it was hurting
me, there was something wrong." Linley agrees. "All week I've been
scared and praying for her," he says. "But now I'm relieved."
Although Hough had hoped to return to Dancing within a week
(Linley will be paired with pro Edyta Sliwinska for now), her doctor
says it will be at least two weeks before she can dance again—in part
because during the procedure he discovered that the scar tissue had also
spread to her bladder and fallopian tubes. As a result, what was
supposed to be a 60-minute surgery took nearly two hours, during which
the scar tissue was lasered off and Hough's appendix and cyst were
removed.
Hough's recovery has also been more painful than she
anticipated. "I don't even remember the first day" postsurgery, she
says, "and the second day I felt the whole time like I was going to
throw up." Fortunately, her boyfriend of five months—country star Chuck
Wicks—was there to nurse her ("Our relationship definitely grew this
week!" says Hough), along with her mother and her 14-week-old Cavalier
King Charles Spaniel, Lexi. "All four of us were on the bed snuggled up,
watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall together, with Lexi in between my
mom and Chuck," Hough says. "We all shared him! It was so much fun."
It wasn't until day five of her recovery that Hough finally felt
well enough to eat solid food. "I've pretty much just been having
chicken noodle soup until now. I'm so sick of it," says the star, whose
first real meal was sushi. But with her belly still tender from the
procedure—she lifts her sweater to reveal three small gauze pads
covering her surgical incisions—"I keep saying to Chuck, 'Don't make me
laugh—it hurts!'"
One thing Hough is feeling good about is her decision to talk
openly about her endometriosis, which she believes she developed at
least five years ago, noting that her period always came with "very
painful" menstrual cramps. It turns out her mother had surgery for
endometriosis 26 years ago, and that her older sister Marabeth, 28, has
the condition—which may be hereditary—as well. (Marabeth will have
surgery on Nov. 17.) "I didn't know if I wanted everyone to know about
this, because it's such a personal thing," Hough admits. "Plus, people
are uneducated about it, and I thought they might try to turn it into
something it's not."
In only a week, however, Hough says she has gotten "lots of
comments from fans thanking me for being honest"—something she plans to
continue being, revealing that to try and keep her body from producing
more scar tissue or cysts, she will regulate her level of estrogen with
low-dose birth control pills.
Despite her health scare, Hough says that—thanks to her
relationship with Wicks and the success of her debut country album—"I
don't think I've been this happy in a long time." And with her return to
Dancing to look forward to, as well as her gig hosting the Country
Music Association Awards' Nov. 12 preshow, Hough knows she has plenty of
reasons "to be looking on the bright side," as she puts it. "I'm right where I belong, and I'm so grateful to be here."
