Understanding MS
- Actress Christina Applegate’s daughter Sadie admitted on the most recent episode of the “MeSsy” podcast that watching her mom struggle with Multiple sclerosis (MS) has been “difficult.”
- Multiple sclerosis causes the immune system to attack cells that form the protective sheath that covers nerve fibers in the spinal cord. The disruption leads to communication problems between the brain and the rest of the body.
- Currently, there is no cure for MS, although some people treat the disease using chemotherapy, medications, or steroid drugs.
- Applegate also battled breast cancer, a disease she fought prior to giving birth to her daughter Sadie, whom she shares with her musician husband, Martyn LeNoble. After Sadie’s birth in 2011, Applegate opted to have her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed in 2017 as a preventative measure.
In the most recent episode of Applegate and Jamie-Lynn Sigler’s “MeSsy” podcast, Applegate, welcomed her “favorite human that has ever walked the earth” onto the show, addressing her as the person who motivates her to get up every morning.
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Looking back on how her mom’s MS journey has progressed, Sadie said, “It’s been really hard watching my mom go from this person who could get up and dance. Every night, I remember when I was a kid, we would dance and everything in her room for hours at a time, when I was seven or something like that.
“Then in 2021, when she got diagnosed it kind of just felt like, not like everything was over, but it was hard seeing my mom lose a lot of the abilities she used to have in my childhood. It’s definitely hard seeing my mom struggle with this.”
Applegate has been living with Multiple sclerosis (MS), a disease in which the immune system eats away at the protective covering of the body’s nerves. Currently, there is no cure for MS, although some people treat the disease using chemotherapy, medications, or steroid drugs.
Despite the disease being incurable, Sadie’s support has been incredibly helpful as her mom copes with MS.
Sadie explained, “It’s been hard but it’s also been nice being able to help her and support her. Every time we go to a concert, she always is like, ‘You cannot push my wheelchair, Sadie, you’re going to run into a wall.’ And I will beg. I’m just like, ‘Please, mom, let me push your wheelchair.’
“Because I want to help her, so that’s definitely why I want to do it, but it’s also funny because she’s always saying, ‘No, I want this person to do it’… and it’s never me.”
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Applegate jokingly chimed in that she often feels “afraid” that if they would come across a ramp that her daughter would “let go because you thought it was funny!”
However, she insisted Sadie, who never heard of MS before her mom’s diagnosis, is “darn good at pushing the wheelchair.”
Looking back to their recent family getaway to Amsterdam, when Applegate was able to slowly walk up to 10,000 steps a day, a number much higher than what she normally does as she often needs to use a wheelchair, the actress called herself the “caboose” as she wasn’t able to keep up with everyone else who was riding bikes.
Regarding when she’s having a “bad day,” Applegate told said, “You know how hard it is and when I say I’m having a bad day, I always feel incredibly guilty about having to say that because I don’t ever want you to feel that I’m not capable to be your protector, your mother, you know, I love you. I want to make you food. I want to bring it to you.
“I want to do all the things and I do when I can. And I feel incredibly guilty when I can’t. But you’re always pretty darn cool about it, kid.”
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Despite Applegate feeling “guilty” at times, her daughter Sadie insisted that she is able to better understand what her mom is going through as she was recently diagnosed with a disorder called postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS).
Sadie recalled discovering she had POTS after feeling dizzy, weak in the legs, and fainting spells when standing up. And since she appeared healthy, prior to her diagnosis, some staffers at the school she attended thought she wasn’t truthful about her symptoms.
“When my mom’s like, ‘Oh, I’m kind of in pain right now. Oh, like, I’m having tremors.’ If I didn’t have this [POTS], I probably would be like, ‘I don’t really care. I don’t know what you’re talking about,'” Said explained.
“But I actually have tremors from POTS. It’s definitely a lot easier to understand what she’s going through when I have something I’m going through as well.”
Christina Applegate’s MS Journey
Applegate began experiencing symptoms of multiple sclerosis long before she had answers.
She actually said she felt off balance during a dance sequence that occurred way back in season one of her dark comedy “Dead to Me.” She later noticed her aptitude for tennis started to fail.
“I wish I had paid attention,” she previously told The New York Times. “But who was I to know?”
It took several years of worsening tingling and numbness in her extremities before her diagnosis arrived while on set. This life-altering realization wouldn’t stop Applegate from finishing her portrayal of character Jen Harding, but she did need a break. Production of the final season ceased for about five months as she began treatment.
“There was the sense of, ‘Well, let’s get her some medicine so she can get better,’” Applegate said. “And there is no better. But it was good for me. I needed to process my loss of my life, my loss of that part of me. So I needed that time.”
Applegate admits she’ll never fully “accept” her condition, but she did learn how to work with it. And she’s previously talked about how the show was a cathartic outlet and safe space.
“I had an obligation to Liz [Feldman] and to Linda [Cardellini], to our story,” she said of the show’s writer and her co-star respectively. “The powers that be were like, ‘Let’s just stop. We don’t need to finish it. Let’s put a few episodes together.’ I said, ‘No. We’re going to do it, but we’re going to do it on my terms.’”
Applegate wasn’t able to work as hard or as long or in the heat without her body giving out, but she found pride in her self-sufficiency. With the help of some adjustments to the schedule, she powered through. Nicole Vassell, a writer for The Independent, says other programs should learn from the way Applegate’s “physical changes [were] seamlessly incorporated into the show.”
“This is the first time anyone’s going to see me the way I am,” Applegate said. “I put on 40 pounds; I can’t walk without a cane. I want people to know that I am very aware of all of that.”
Applegate also battled breast cancer, a disease she fought prior to giving birth to her daughter Sadie, whom she shares with her musician husband, Martyn LeNoble. After Sadie’s birth, Applegate opted to have her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed in 2017 as a preventative measure.
Applegate was diagnosed with breast cancer in April 2008, when she was just 36 years old. She ultimately underwent a lumpectomy, which is a procedure that removes the tumor and some of the surrounding tissue. For early-stage breast cancer, studies have shown that lumpectomy plus radiation is as effective a treatment in preventing breast cancer recurrence as mastectomy.
She then underwent six weeks of radiation, using high-energy beams aimed at the cancer cells to kill them.
Understanding Multiple Sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis causes the immune system to attack cells that form the protective sheath that covers nerve fibers in the spinal cord. The disruption leads to communication problems between the brain and the rest of the body.
Once the protective barrier is damaged, the spinal cord struggles to communicate to the body’s arms, legs, and other parts to function normally.
The National Multiple Sclerosis Society lays out the different types of multiple sclerosis:
- Clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) is when an individual experiences a single neurological episode lasting 24 hours or less. CIS is what MS is diagnosed as until there is a second episode.
- Relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS): The most common MS among the million people battling the disease in the US, RRMS is marked by sudden flare-ups, new symptoms, or worsening of symptoms and cognitive function. The condition will then go into remission for some time before reemerging with no known warning signs.
- Primary progressive MS (PPMS): These individuals have no flare-ups or remission, just a steady decline with progressively worse symptoms and an increasing loss of cognitive and body functions.
- Secondary progressive MS (SPMS): This almost transitional form of MS progresses from RRMS to PPMS.
In addition to balance issues, numbness, and tingling in the limbs, as Applegate experienced, other common MS symptoms include vision and bladder control problems. Mood changes and mental and physical fatigue are other symptoms people living with MS may experience, according to the National Institute of Health.
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The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke explains this disease as: “An unpredictable disease of the central nervous system, [MS] can range from relatively benign to somewhat disabling to devastating, as communication between the brain and other parts of the body is disrupted.” Investigators of the disease believe it to be an autoimmune disease.
Currently, there is no cure for MS, although some people treat the disease using chemotherapy, medications, or steroid drugs.
Power of Support
A support system can be made up of loved ones like family and friends. It can also be comprised of strangers who have come together because of a shared cancer experience. Mental health professionals can also be critical parts of a support system.
WATCH: Sharing details about your cancer diagnosis.
“Some people don’t need to go outside of their family and friend’s circle. They feel like they have enough support there,” psychiatrist Dr. Lori Plutchik told SurvivorNet.
“But for people who feel like they need a little bit more, it’s important to reach out to a mental health professional,” Dr. Plutchik added.
Dr. Plutchik also stressed it is important for people supporting cancer warriors to understand their emotions can vary day-to-day.
“People can have a range of emotions, they can include fear, anger, and these emotions tend to be fluid. They can recede and return based on where someone is in the process,” Dr. Plutchik said.
Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff
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