Selena Gomez is opening up about how her friendship with Francia Raisa saved her life and the faith it took to get where she is.
Before having a kidney transplant this past summer, the "Bad Liar" singer had been battling health issues. Gomez has been fighting Lupus for five years and experienced a series of other concerns.
"My mentality was just keep going," Gomez said in a recent interview on The Today Show.
In the interview with Savannah Guthrie on The Today Show, Raisa said, "she couldn't open a water bottle one day. She chucked it and she started crying. I said 'What's wrong?' and that's when she told me. She goes, 'I don't know what to do. The list is seven to 10 years long'."
It was then that Raisa told Gomez she would go get tested to be a possible kidney donor.
Francia had blood and urine testing completed while undergoing psychological and physical evaluations -- all in one day, when the process normally takes several months. Due to the urgency of needing the transplant, the testing process to see if Raisa was a match was accelerated.
Both surgeries were successful, but there was going to be a long road of recovery for both of them. While recovering the friends stayed in one place allowing for both of them to continue to be together while on bedrest. The hardest part the girls said to the recovery was having to ask for help from others. "It was hard because you constantly needed to ask for help," Raisa said. "I think one of the most humbling experiences was needing help to put on underwear. We couldn't take showers by ourselves. It was a brutal process."
After having the time to recovery and focus on herself, Gomez has gained back her health. "...as soon as I got the kidney transplant, my arthritis went away, my Lupus is about a three to five percent chance that it will ever come back, my blood pressure is better, my energy -- my life has been better," Gomez explained to Guthrie.
Selena hopes that her story will help others and to inspire that there are really good people in the world.
