OutDaughtered Star Danielle Busby Opens Up About Her Mystery Illness and 'Extreme' Symptoms (2024)

As Danielle Busby continues to seek answers regarding her mysterious health struggles, the OutDaughtered star is "trying to be as patient" as she can.

"What I'm learning is that it's an uphill journey of trying to discover some type of possible autoimmune disease," the mom of six tells PEOPLE ahead of OutDaughtered's return to TLC on Tuesday. "So it's not something that's easily identified. [My] symptoms are so random and so extreme on certain days and like, a little bit more calm or relaxed on other days."

"I've definitely been on a journey of trying to figure out what's going on and what's wrong and seen multiple doctors. At this point, we've outweighed a lot of things and have had struggles with some things, but still no answers," continues Danielle, 37.

The TLC star says she and her husband, Adam Busby, are "trying to be as patient as we can and lower our stress levels."

Danielle and Adam — who share 9-year-old daughter Blayke and 5-year-old quintuplets Ava, Olivia, Riley, Parker and Hazel — have chronicled their lives on OutDaughtered since 2016.

They first opened up about Danielle's health struggles when she was admitted to the emergency room last November. Doctors ran tests looking into "some alarming sensations in her arms and legs," Adam wrote on Instagram at the time.

More than a month later, Danielle shared a health update with her followers explaining that she had been "seeing multiple doctors," including a cardiologist and rheumatologist, in hopes of figuring out what was going on, according to screenshots of her Instagram Story captured by In Touch.

In early January, Danielle was once again hospitalized as she underwent an "invasive test" in the search of answers, Adam announced on Instagram.

While Danielle was "pretty certain" she would need to undergo surgery at the time, she revealed days later on Instagram that her "prayer was answered" and no surgery was needed.

Reflecting on the past few months, "we've had scary moments for sure," Danielle tells PEOPLE. "Some that have scared the crap out of me, honestly ... Like, this would check the box and you're good with this and cleared from this, but move on to the next."

"And so it's just an unforeseen future of what is next," she continues. "How do we get to the answer? So just trying to have patience, I guess, through all that."

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Although the couple remains hopeful, the process has been trying. Despite the amount of testing his wife has undergone, Adam says they aren't any closer to a concrete diagnosis.

"It seems like every new test and every new doctor that she goes to, it's like checking boxes and checking things off the list. But it just leads to another test and you kind of rule something out, but we're not necessarily any closer to a for sure diagnosis yet," he says.

On the upcoming season of OutDaughtered, audiences will see the quints enter kindergarten, which has afforded Danielle more time to pay attention to her body. "They're all in school right now, so I feel like I kind of have a moment where I can actually feel and listen [to] my body," she says. "And for a while I've just been hearing like, something's not right. Something's wrong. I don't feel the same."

Though "it's hard to put that exact pinpoint on what it is because we can't figure it out," Danielle says that with the kids "being in school right now, it's opened up a little window of focusing on me and trying to really help discover like what's going on."

For the TLC star, one of the most difficult aspects of her mystery health battle is feeling as though she's letting her loved ones down.

"I really need that right now — to try to put my health as a priority," says Danielle. "Because when I'm down, I feel like I'm letting the family down and that's kind of a hard thing — I am a mom of six and a wife and I love all that."

"And so if I can't be here, then, to me, it drags me down even more," she admits. "And so it's hard when I get to like, the low phase of pain or suffering in certain aspects, because I don't like how it makes me not capable in certain things."

While Danielle acknowledges "it's a roller coaster right now," she says she's leaning on her faith and family as she seeks answers.

"I'm trying to navigate how to adjust what we do at home with being a mom and being healthy and doing the things that I need to do," she says. "So it's a journey."

OutDaughtered returns Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on TLC.