Christina Applegate Says Her 2021 MS Diagnosis Was a Misdiagnosis: 'Back at Square One'
Christina Applegate, 54, revealed on the October 20 return of MeSsy, the podcast she co-hosts with Jamie-Lynn Sigler, that doctors recently told her the multiple sclerosis (MS) she was diagnosed with in 2021 was a misdiagnosis and that she does not have the disease. According to USA Today, the two-part episode marked her return to the podcast, which is devoted to living with MS, after she spent several months in the hospital earlier this year and about seven months away from public view.
Applegate tearfully recalled her doctor coming into her room and saying, "Congratulations, you don't have MS." She said she was "not happy at all," even though everyone else was happy. "You don't get misdiagnosed and then all of a sudden I'm better. I haven't gotten better. If anything, I've gotten worse in some ways. So I'm back at square one, that I don't know what's going on with me," she said. She said she had "every symptom" of someone with MS, and that her doctors will keep investigating what has been happening to her since 2021. Parade reported that she still relies heavily on a wheelchair for basic mobility, including getting from her car into a doctor's office.
She said the revelation plunged her into depression and left her feeling she had "let everybody down," after she and Sigler, who has MS, became prominent public faces of the MS community. In the second part, she said she felt "quite hollow and quite scared and sad," adding, "Now, I just feel lost." Sigler assured her on the show that she had not misled anyone.
The second episode featured Dr. Marwa Kaisey, an associate professor of neurology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. According to LADbible, Kaisey said on the podcast that MS misdiagnoses are fairly common, in part because there is no single test for MS and diagnosis rests on a list of criteria; she cited a figure of about 20 percent of people diagnosed with MS ultimately turning out not to have it. What condition Applegate actually has has not been publicly confirmed, and her doctors will investigate anew.
Applegate was diagnosed with what was believed to be MS in 2021 while filming the final season of the Netflix series Dead to Me, after which she stepped back from on-screen acting and continued to document her health journey in a memoir and on MeSsy. She said she once at least had a reason "as to why my day sucked every day," and that losing that explanation is "very unnerving" and "really confusing." (GSM, based on USA Today reporting)
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: Christina Applegate资料照片（2014年7月25日圣迭戈国际动漫展摄，非本次播客录制现场），Gage Skidmore摄，Wikimedia Commons，CC BY 2.0授权
