Page 69 - AVN May 2022

“I think being grateful is a huge part of being happy and successful, too.”
It turned out her unexpected paralysis was a due to a vitamin B12 deficiency. She had been feeling tired and rundown and it had begun to affect her work schedule when one day while walking through the JFK Airport in New York her legs felt tingly and she knew something was wrong.
It was only after seeing a neurologist more than a week later that she was admitted to Northridge Hospital in suburban L.A., where she stayed for four days before going to a rehabilitation facility for most of April.
“That’s the most scared I’ve ever been in my whole entire life,” Dior says. “Like I could not move from the neck down, I could barely move my arms and legs. And around this time, April 11, this is when I started getting better.
“But I was in the physical therapy rehab and I lived there for three weeks.”
Dior turned that negative experience into some of the biggest positives of her life. First and
foremost, Dior became closer to her family during the ordeal.
“My family came out in shifts to help me and be with me,” Gianna says. “But I was scared for
my career for sure. I thought I was done working. I was like I can’t even walk, how am I gonna wear stripper heels and do like a striptease or something?
“... So I worked my ass off and I walked out of that place.”
Dior says she lost a lot of weight when she was sick, getting down to 95 pounds. Today she’s
back to 115 pounds on her 5-foot-5 frame.
The resilient performer points to her natural survival skills that helped her in the toughest
moments, the same ones that she’s called upon to get her through other challenges in her life. “I know exactly where I got it from and it was both my parents being in the military,” Gianna explains. “From a very young age I was very disciplined and had to take care of myself. I mean
my parents were there if I needed help but I had to figure things out myself.”
Dior tells AVN she’s always done things her own way. Knowing that, she says, makes the
success she’s had that much more gratifying.
“I’m grateful for everything,” she says. “My health and my family are like the two biggest things.
My fans would be the next thing. And for my career, for the opportunities I’ve been given, for Spiegler. The companies that have worked with me, the performers who have worked with me, AVN. I think being grateful is a huge part of being happy and successful, too. I wouldn’t realize how good I have it if I didn’t think about what I’m grateful for.”
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