BRANDI GLANVILLE: My face is collapsing and there’s something MOVING under my skin. Doctors still don’t have answers. I want to get a scalpel and cut it open myself

For the past two years, Brandi Glanville has been trying to answer one question: What’s caused her mysterious facial disfigurement?

Since her face swelled up in 2023, the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star has shared every grim detail with fans – finding ‘painful lumps’ in her jaw, something ‘moving’ under her skin, and even an ‘acidic, foul-tasting drainage’ that corroded five of her teeth.

But – despite undergoing a slew of procedures including four biopsies, lymphatic drainage and ‘CellSound’ which uses ultrasound waves to break down fat – the 52-year-old is still no closer to a diagnosis.

‘There’s something wrong in my body. I don’t know what it is and that’s scary,’ she tells the Daily Mail.

‘I need an answer. I need to get to the bottom of it because I don’t want to not wake up one day.’

Glanville’s horrifying ordeal began in August 2023, when she was hospitalized with angioedema – a reaction where tissue deep within the skin fills with fluid and begins to swell.

Glanville initially claimed this was triggered by stress after her Real Housewives co-star Caroline Manzo accused her of sexual assault while filming a holiday spin-off in Morocco seven months prior. Glanville has vehemently denied the allegations.

RHOBH star Brandi Glanville, 52, shares update on her ongoing health journey in exclusive interview with Daily Mail

The reality TV star shocked fans in December when she shared a candid selfie showcasing her facial disfigurement

But the swelling continued to worsen, impacting her ability to speak and eat.

In December she shared a candid selfie of her sunken face and claimed that a doctor had told her the disfigurement was caused by a facial ‘parasite’ she may have contracted in Morocco.

Yet even that wasn’t a final diagnosis. Over the past year, Glanville has spent a jaw-dropping $70,000 on doctors who dissolved her facial fillers and ran a slew of tests and treatments.

Indeed, her hefty medical records read like a who’s who. She has consulted an immunologist, an infectious disease doctor, a rheumatologist and an ENT as well as Dr Terry Dubrow, the host of TV show Botched, who performed the four biopsies on her face.

The plastic surgeon from California claimed he ‘didn’t find anything’ under Glanville’s skin and suggested the swelling could be due to a fungal infection or a reaction to ‘something she’d had injected’ such as filler.

As well as less conventional treatments such as CellSound, lymphatic drainage and red light therapy, she was also prescribed intravenous antibiotics and fungal medication. These seemed to help – but she says she couldn’t afford to stay on them.

‘I just want an answer, even if it’s the worst answer in the world,’ she says. ‘I literally want to get a scalpel and cut my face open. It’s just frustrating.

‘I’ve spent almost all of my money because I’ve had to go outside my insurance.’

The financial strain has also impacted her mental health, but she jokes in true Glanville fashion: ‘I’m not my best, honestly, but I have a good antidepressant.’

Glanville said she’s spent over $70,000 and had five consultations with plastic surgeons to treat her mysterious skin condition

The Celebrity Big Brother star has kept fans updated on social media by sharing selfies of her swollen face

She puts her resilience down to her two sons Mason, 21, and Jake, 17, whom she had with her ex-husband actor Eddie Cibrian.

‘If it wasn’t for my sons I’d be in a straitjacket. I honestly would,’ she says. ‘I don’t know where I would be. They are the reason I live. They’re my joy, my happiness, my everything.’

She adds that Cibrian – who has been married to singer Leann Rimes since 2011, following an affair that ended his nine-year marriage to Glanville – has also offered as much encouragement as an ex-spouse possibly can.

Fans were elated when Glanville posted a picture of herself celebrating Christmas with her sons, ex-husband and his current wife last year.

While Glanville says she will continue to search for answers in whatever way possible, she’s keeping her mind off it with an exciting new venture – her dance single ‘Remedy’ with Australian pop artists RIP Youth (aka her friend James Maas) and Beks.

But the reality TV star, who raps on the track, says she almost didn’t agree to take part.

Glanville was previously married to actor Eddie Cibrian from 2001 to 2010.

The Traitors contestant and her ex-husband (right) are proud parents of two sons: 21-year-old Mason (left), and 17-year-old Jake (center)

Glanville, pictured with Australian artists RIP Youth (center) and Beks (left), have teamed up with the launch of their new pop song, titled ‘Remedy’

‘It was such a great opportunity, but the past two years have been tough,’ she says. ‘I was kind of isolating [myself] and James knew that. He was like, “You have to do this,” and I wanted to do it for him. I needed something positive.’

While the swelling appears to have improved in recent months, she says she worries that the ‘sinking’ look makes her ‘look like a crackhead’.

Until she gets the answers, then, her mission is simple. ‘I want to have fun,’ she says. ‘That’s the most important thing, because that’s what I’ve missed out on these past two years.’