The star told the publication she was originally meant to be in the hospital for 15 days but that quickly turned into five weeks as she underwent multiple surgeries in an attempt to fix the complications.
Now, back on New Zealand soil, Mean updated fans with a short Instagram story yesterday directly from her hospital bed.
“Hey team, just a quick update from me,” she said with a IV line in her hand, “I’ve just had the surgeon come in to check on the wound and they’ve taken the vacuum dressing off.”
She continued to say: “They’ve determined that there’s still dead fat and dead skin around the wound and that they can’t do the skin graph yet so I have to go into surgery again today to remove more of that and then they’ll put another vacuum dressing on and then reevaluate again in a few more days so I will be in hospital for Christmas.”
The star then thanked her fans for their continued support and said she would keep them updated following the surgery.
Mean’s surgery comes after she went from 160kg to 80kg following gastric-sleeve surgery in 2019. The star - who is an Auckland icon as she co-owns K Road’s Caluzzi with Anita Wigl’it, has been candid about her experience with the surgery.
Following her win on Drag Race, the star spoke to Woman’s Day where she said she decided to have the surgery because her life “was always deeply affected by my weight”.
Having found a love of life through drag, Mean said she found her weight was restrictive when changing in and out of costume and didn’t want to give up drag so she got the surgery.
“Drag saved my life in a lot of ways and I wanted to continue living!” she said.
