Candiace Dillard Bassett Was Paralyzed in Pain Days After Giving Birth. Here’s What Doctors Found Next (Exclusive)

For Candiace Dillard Bassett, delivery was a breeze. But postpartum, she says? "Zero stars, would not recommend at all."

The Real Housewives of Potomac alumna, 37, and her husband Chris Bassett, 46, welcomed their first child together on Thursday, Oct. 3 — son Jett Maxwell Lee Bassett. But while sharing their happy news with PEOPLE exclusively, Candiace also reveals that her health took a turn after giving birth, so much so that she found herself paralyzed in pain.

The problems started two days after leaving the hospital, while the couple were at Sanu Postnatal Retreat, a luxury wellness center in McLean, a Washington, DC, suburb of northern Virginia.

"I started having these horrifying lower abdominal pains," Candiace says. "It was so bad that I couldn't walk, I couldn't move, I couldn't do anything. And it just kept getting worse."

Medicating with ibuprofen and Tylenol every four hours was the only thing that helped Candiace not feel incapacitated, but she still "didn't feel normal."

Then the fevers started, one measuring 103.9°F. "I was burning up! And it went on for a week," Candiace recalls, noting the problems persisted even after she returned home. "I just couldn't break it."

At the same time, the Bravo star was attempting to breastfeed. "It was really excruciating at first, it was hurting so bad," she explains. "And I know it often hurts in the beginning while you're adjusting, but I was already dealing with so much pain, it made it so much worse. I wasn't producing as much milk, I couldn't pump. I was a mess."

All of this affected Candiace's mental health as well. "I was really depressed because you have to understand: I couldn't get up — literally, I was stuck in the bed, doubled over in pain," she says. "I couldn't take care of my baby. If I didn't have a husband, me and my child would be dead because I could not do anything. I was just like a literal vegetable, laying there like a bump on a log."

Finally, Candiace's dad convinced her to go to back to the doctor. A computed axial tomography (CAT) scan determined that there was a blood clot in her left ovary.

Luckily, surgery wasn't needed, but the "Drive Back" singer was prescribed six weeks of blood thinners, administered daily via shots. After that, another CAT scan will determine the status of the clot and allow doctors to reassess the situation.

About a week into the medication, not only was Candiace's body feeling better, but also, her mental health. "My depression really lifted and it's been much better now," she says. "I'm actually able to take care of Jett; to hold him and care for him and breastfeed and actually be a mom. And I'm completely obsessed, like — it's everything I wanted it to be and more."

She goes on to thank her husband for stepping up when she had to step down.

"I've always known he was a great dad, but this really cemented that for me," Candiace says of the chef, who has three kids — sons Owen, 22, Mateo, 14, and daughter Naia, 10 — from two previous relationships. "Because Chris was doing almost everything. He was mostly getting up in the middle of the night. He was holding Jett, watching him. So I'm so grateful I didn't have to go through this alone."

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And in fact becoming a mom — a decision Candiace previously labored over — has strengthened the love she had for her own mom, Dorothy Watts.

"My mom was here for two weeks, and to be a mom in front of my mom was weird," Candiace tells PEOPLE. "But while she was here, I asked her, 'How did you do this with three kids? How did you have me and then have a toddler, and then have a newborn and a full-time job and a husband and a house and a dog?' Because I'm having the heart palpitations thinking about doing one of those things with a newborn!"

"So yeah, I definitely have a newfound respect for what it takes to not just to be a mom, but to be a good mom, be a present mom. And my mom was really present," Candiace says. "I always felt her in my life. So I hope to be as good of a mom to Jett as she was to me."

For more on Candiace Dillard Bassett, pick up this week's issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.