Joanna Gaines Has Major Surgery

Joanna Gaines had to take things a bit easier this past holiday season. The 44-year-old Fixer Upper star needed extra time to recover from spinal surgery. The Magnolia Network lead and personality, who shares five children with husband Chip Gaines, revealed her holiday hospitalization journey with her followers on Instagram, posting a photo of herself rocking sunglasses and throwing up a peace sign while laying in her hospital bed.

In the caption, Joanna shared that she’s suffered from back issues since she was a high school cheerleader, when “basically a basket toss turned back injury and I’ve been dealing with it ever since.” The Magnolia Home creator had her first microdiscectomy, a surgical procedure that can relieve pain originating from a herniated disc in the spine, in 2001, and it forced her to cancel her second date with her now-husband.

Two weeks ago, Joanna underwent the same procedure on another disc. “I’ve always joked that my back likes to act up at the most inconvenient times and I was a bit stressed [because] of the timing of it all with the holiday season,” she wrote. “But I’m truly grateful for the forced rest during the busiest time of the year. It has been a gift to simply stay put, stare at the wonder all around, and just be still.”

Joanna concluded her message with a reminder to enjoy the time you have this holiday season, adding a photo of her sitting by the fireplace with one of her younger children – Joanna and Chip share sons Drake, 17, Duke, 14, and Crew, 4, and daughters Ella, 16, and Emmie, 12. “Wishing you and yours a beautiful Christmas week. It may not all go as planned- but may you find the beauty and embrace the wonder of the here and now,” she wrote.

Chip and Joanna have opened up before about the challenges of running their Magnolia empire as its sole owners, with Joanna telling Variety recently, “For us, there hasn’t been a playbook, which I would say is why we have many sleepless nights because there’s no other business that you can say, ‘Well, they did this in the last 10 years and it’s worked.’ It feels a bit lonely on this side of it.” She added, “But, thankfully, I’ve got Chip here with me. I feel like every other day we’re just jumping and holding our breath.”