Focusing on the Positive
- Christina Applegate, 52, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2021, and her day-to-day life has become more challenging as she lives with the chronic condition that causes numbness or tingling in the limbs. Despite this, she still focuses on the positive and achieving her long-term goals.
- Due to her diagnosis, everyday activities such as showering and walking upstairs prove challenging for Applegate.
- Although there is no cure for multiple sclerosis, several treatment options help manage symptoms. Common tools MS patients use to improve their quality of life include wheelchairs, canes, leg braces, and medical treatments called disease-modifying therapies (DMTs), which can slow the progression of the disease.
- The “Married with Children” star also bravely battled breast cancer after a 2008 diagnosis. She underwent a double mastectomy (removal of both breasts).
Now, the resilient actress says despite her health challenges, no one should count her out just yet. There’s lots more for her to do, including sharing a cocktail with singer and fellow actress Cher.
There are things I want to do with the days I have left in life. I want to work with Shirley MacLaine And do shots with cher! And yes my days are so big. Just saying.
— christina applegate (@1capplegate) July 3, 2024
Multiple sclerosis is a disease of the brain and central nervous system that causes numbness or tingling in the limbs, fatigue, lack of coordination, blurry vision, and unsteady gait.
Applegate has most notably adopted using a cane to help her with balance issues.
Applegate’s Health Journeys With Multiple Sclerosis and Breast Cancer
Applegate has been living with multiple sclerosis since August 2021. The diagnosis came more than a decade after she dealt with breast cancer in 2008.
“With the disease of MS, it’s never a good day,” Applegate previously wrote on her Instagram.
“Having MS f—ing sucks…You just have little s— days,” she said.
She explained how her symptoms are impacting her daily life, including everyday activities like taking showers, using stairs, and carrying things.
Living with Multiple Sclerosis
Applegate’s breast cancer journey began in April 2008 at just 36 years old.
“I went through five weeks of work without telling anyone that this was going on in my life,” she said during a CNN interview.
Applegate said she had dense breasts and would need more thorough examinations for her routine mammogram screenings.
“He suggested that I get an MRI,” the actress said.
Dr. Connie Lehman, Chief of the Breast Imaging Division at Mass General Hospital, says dense breast tissue is more challenging to see through.
WATCH: What to know about dense breasts.
“The fatty breast tissue has a gray appearance, so an X-ray beam just runs right through it. But the dense structures block the X-ray. And so that looks white. Unfortunately, cancers also block the X-ray, so cancers also look white. When you have a white cancer hiding in white, dense breast tissue, it can be missed,” Dr. Lehman explains.
It’s recommend that women with dense breasts undergo 3D mammograms, which can be more effective.
When Applegate underwent an MRI screening, something was off.
“They found some funky things going on [in one breast],” she said.
A biopsy confirmed her diagnosis, but luckily, the cancer was caught early. Despite her prognosis, she was still very concerned with her diagnosis.
She then turned her worry into determination, and she focused her efforts on beating the cancer. She 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 (the removal of the breast).
Applegate then underwent six weeks of radiation, using high-energy beams aimed at the cancer cells to kill them.
During treatment, she learned she tested positive for the BRCA gene, increasing her risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer.
“That sort of changed everything for me. Radiation was something temporary, and it wasn’t addressing the issue of this coming back or the chance of it coming back in my left breast. I sort of had to kind of weigh all my options at that point,” she explained.
The harmful variant of BRCA1 or BRCA2 is inherited from either or both of your parents. So, each offspring of a parent who carries the mutation has a 50% chance of inheriting it.
WATCH: Testing for the BRCA gene mutation.
“Patients with a strong family history of breast cancer or ovarian cancer or patients who have a diagnosis of a couple of breast cancers in their lifetime will be at higher risk,” University of Maryland breast medical oncologist Dr. Kate Tkaczuk explains.
The actress’ doctor gave her treatment options, but she ultimately opted for a preventative double mastectomy, which removes both breasts to reduce cancer risk. When a woman undergoes a double mastectomy, it is a personal and emotional decision that impacts how they feel about themselves.
“It just seemed like, ‘I don’t want to have to deal with this again. I don’t want to keep putting that stuff in my body. I just want to be done with this,’ and I was just going to let them go,” she explained.
Just before the procedure, Applegate said she staged her “first and last nude photo shoot” so she could remember her breasts. Just before the surgery began, Applegate admitted she began to cry.
“The floodgates just opened up, and I lost it…It’s also a part of you that’s gone, so you go through a grieving process and a mourning process,” Dr. Tkaczuk explained.
“A double mastectomy typically takes about two hours for the cancer part of the operation, the removing of the tissue,” Dr. Elisa Port, Chief of Breast Surgery at Mount Sinai Health System, told SurvivorNet in a previous chat. “The real length, the total length of the surgery, can often depend on what type of reconstruction [a patient] has.”
WATCH: What happens during a double mastectomy.
Dr. Port added that most women opt to have some reconstruction. The length of these surgeries can vary. When implants are used, the procedure can take two to three hours (so the total surgery time would be around five hours). There is also the option to take one’s own tissue (usually from the belly area) and transfer it into the breast area, but this is a much longer procedure.
Since Applegate’s breast cancer journey began, she’s advocated for women to undergo the necessary screenings for early detection.
Questions for Your Doctor
If you are diagnosed with MS or may be concerned you have the chronic disease due to symptoms you’re experiencing, consider asking your doctor the following questions.
- Which treatment options would you recommend to manage MS?
- Are there any potential side effects of MS treatment?
- What if the treatment to manage symptoms doesn’t work?
- Will exercise or therapy help my symptoms?
- Are there any MS support groups you recommend to help me cope?
Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.
