Taylor Armstrong made quite the splash upon her return to the world of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills . As shown on Tuesday night’s episode, Taylor raised some questions about Yolanda Foster’s Lyme Disease. Taylor’s questioning of whether Yolanda really has Lyme Disease made the other housewives uncomfortable.
In her BravoTV blog post, Taylor explained what prompted her to start talking and asking questions about Yolanda’s illness. Taylor said that she wondered if Yolanda was misdiagnosed, since the symptoms that she described seemed similar to two family members who were finally diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.
“When Yolanda was first diagnosed with Lyme disease, I shared my thoughts with her about the potential for a misdiagnosis. I have had two family members with Multiple Sclerosis, and it took quite a long time for them to be properly diagnosed. The symptoms she described were similar to what my family members experienced.”
Taylor revealed that she offered to connect Yolanda to a world-renowned diagnostic neurologist who is her husband’s friend, but she declined to meet or talk with him.
“My husband’s friend is a world-renowned diagnostic neurologist, and I offered to connect Yolanda with him for an appointment or even a phone call to describe her condition and get his thoughts. She declined to do so, but I was concerned for her and wanted to offer the option of another opinion.”
Real Housewives fans may find Taylor’s claim that she offered help to Yolanda, but was declined reminiscent of what happened on Season 10 of The Real Housewives of Orange County . On that show, Shannon Beador said that she offered a doctor referral to Vicki Gunvalson in the hopes that it would help Brooks Ayers, who claimed that his cancer had returned, but the referral was never taken advantage of. Brooks not taking advantage of such help confused the women. During the filming of the reunion show, Vicki finally admitted that she doesn’t believe that Brooks has cancer.
Will Season 6 of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills be consumed by the other housewives’ questioning of Yolanda’s Lyme Disease, as Season 10 of The Real Housewives of Orange County was consumed with the housewives’ questioning of Brooks Ayers’ cancer diagnoses?
Lisa Rinna made clear on Tuesday night’s episode that Taylor’s questions were inappropriate. In regards to Lisa R. saying in her interview that Taylor was overstepping with her questions, Taylor said that since she hadn’t seen the group in a while, she asked how people were doing, which is normal. She said that she was surprised to learn that Yolanda was still ill after all this time and all the intensive treatments that she has done. Taylor was also surprised at how reluctant the other women were to talk about it, as if it was a taboo subject. As taboo as Kim Richards’ sobriety was in earlier seasons?
“When I started asking about her health, the ladies acted as if it was taboo to talk about it, which I found odd considering Yolanda has been very public about her health issues. It made me more inquisitive because I couldn’t get a straight answer about how she was doing, and I didn’t understand why no one wanted to talk about it.
Taylor ended her blog post by saying that she knows that Yolanda is ill and wasn’t questioning that. Instead, she was questioning whether Yolanda should explore other possibilities as the source of her illness.
“I know that she is ill. I was not questioning that, and I wasn’t questioning Yolanda. I was merely suggesting that since all the Lyme disease treatments were not helping her, maybe she and her doctors should consider other possibilities. I feel terrible for her that she is having such a difficult time and wish her all the best in her recovery.”
So what does Yolanda Foster think about what Taylor Armstrong said about her? In her own BravoTV blog post, Yolanda said that Taylor’s questioning was “ ignorance .” Yolanda wrote that she hopes that Taylor never has to experience a chronic illness like her.
“What I saw on the show tonight was just that: IGNORANCE…What defines suffering? You will never hear someone who’s walked in my shoes speak the way Taylor spoke on tonight’s episode. I truly hope she never has to experience the journey she questions me for sharing.”
Yolanda Foster: What I Saw Was Ignorance https://t.co/glGNTsfcAs pic.twitter.com/2QCts59PmC
— Bravo (@BravoTV) December 16, 2015
Yolanda also addressed Taylor’s bewilderment over her social media posts.
“Happy selfie, sick selfie…that’s exactly right. Every day is different, and I will not use my social media to convey anything but my truth. Bad days do exist in Beverly Hills, even though no one seems to dare share.”
In response to one viewer who asked Yolanda if she writes her own blog posts, Yolanda said that she does now that she has the ability to write again.
“ Yes, and I am very excited to have the ability to write again-Great progress from last year “
Welcome back, @TaylorArmstrong ! #RHOBH pic.twitter.com/ks2LEDsbfW
— Bravo (@BravoTV) December 16, 2015
On the latest episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills , Lisa Vanderpump gathered all of the housewives, including Taylor Armstrong, who starred on the show from Seasons 1 through 3 and has continued to appear on the show from time to time ever since, for a birthday party thrown in honor of her husband, Ken Todd. Yolanda Foster was not there. Seated next to Lisa Rinna, Taylor began talking about Yolanda’s illness.
“What’s going on with Yolanda? I’m sooo like confused. It seems strange to me that she’s like, happy selfie, sick selfie, happy selfie, sick selfie. And also like, I’m trying to follow her on Instagram but I don’t like seeing the whole needle in the arm thing all the time. It’s a little much….It seems like there’s a lot of back and forth. I don’t understand. Normally people just do some antibiotics, they move on but this to me, I’m smelling misdiagnoses.”
[Photo by Jonathan Leibson/Getty Images]