Christina Applegate opens up about being hospitalized over 30 times with ‘unimaginable’ pain following MS diagnosis
Topics: Christina Applegate, Health, Podcast
Emily Brown
Featured Image Credit: Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images
Topics: Christina Applegate, Health, Podcast
Christina Applegate got candid about her experience with multiple sclerosis as she opened up about her diagnosis in a new podcast episode.
The Dead To Me actor first revealed her MS diagnosis in 2021, and has since gone on to speak openly about how she came to learn she had the condition, which affects both the brain and spinal cord.
For Applegate, the initial symptoms were as simple as 'tingling on [her] toes', and within just a few months, she was being brought to set in a wheelchair as she struggled to walk.
In the years since her diagnosis, Applegate has consistently had to deal with the effects of health issues in almost every aspect of her life.
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She spoke in more detail about the kind of situations she's experienced while marking the one-year anniversary of her MesSy podcast, when a listener wrote in to share experiences of their own.
The listener admitted they were 'throwing up and having diarrhea every single day' - symptoms which Applegate said she's very familiar with, even though doctors have claimed they're unrelated to her MS.
The actor said: "This is really important because for three years, since I was diagnosed, I’ve been in the hospital upwards of 30 times from throwing up and diarrhea and pain that is unimaginable."
Applegate went on to say doctors had done 'every test known to man' on her, from putting 'so much radiation' in her body to carrying out CT scans and 'everything else'.
She continued: “Now, maybe this isn’t what’s happening, but I’m just gonna tell you this: Talk to your doctor about motility issues, OK? Because one of the things with MS is that it slows down our organs — not completely, but there is a slowing of the function of your organs."
Not afraid of getting into specifics, Applegate went on: “I’m gonna be really honest, if I have to poop, I puke. And when I puke, I get all the pain, and then all the things happen.”
She dubbed the response as the 'fight club', saying: “So, there’s this really horrible argument. It’s like everyone’s fighting with each other.”
Applegate has sought to have a 'big conversation' with her medical team about the symptoms she's experienced; an argument she's attempted to back by going in for a recent colonoscopy.
“There’s gotta be a correlation here,” she said.
Among the symptoms of MS include numbness, weakness, trouble walking and vision changes.