Sandra Lee, the beloved TV dermatologist, recalled suffering a stroke while filming for a new season of Dr. Pimple Popper: “a part of my brain died.”

Ahead of show’s new season premiere on April 20th, the reality TV personality weighed on her health emergency while speaking to PEOPLE in this week’s issue.

Reflecting on the terrible day last November, Lee said she “notice it right now that I don’t speak exactly the way I used to. You’re really embarrassed to speak because you notice it.”

She pointed out to the slight hesitation and subtle slurring in her speech, early signs that emerged when the viral dermatologist realised she was suffering a stroke.

“It is very stressful to open yourself up,” Lee added. “Especially as a surgeon, you always want to show yourself coming from an area of strength.”

Lee was in the middle of filming on November 20 when she first sensed something was wrong, brushing it off initially as a minor episode.

“It happened while I was filming the show,” she recalled. “I had what I thought was a hot flash. I got super sweaty and didn’t feel like myself.”

After wrapping, she headed to her parents’ nearby home but grew increasingly uneasy. “I just felt very restless… In one leg I kept feeling shooting pains,” she says, adding she later struggled to walk down the stairs.

By morning, the symptoms had worsened. “I would hold my hand out, and it would just slowly collapse… I thought, ‘Am I having a stroke?’” she revealed.

An MRI later confirmed an ischemic stroke. “It was just a shock… ‘Well, this is a dream, right?’… What essentially happened… is I had a part of my brain that died.”