Christina Applegate’s MS journey reveals the challenge of misdiagnosis
www.scientificamerican.com
The Emmy Award–winning actress revealed that a multiple sclerosis diagnosis in 2021 was incorrect. It’s a surprisingly common experience, experts say

Her experience, while not the norm, is far from unusual, experts say.

Applegate disclosed the revelation on an episode of her podcast with Jamie Lynn Sigler, MeSsy, which centers on their lives with MS. (Sigler disclosed that she has relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, or RRMS, in 2016.) “In January of 2021, I had numbness in my toes, and that numbness grew to all of my legs,” Applegate recalled on the podcast. “And then the pain started.”

  • celeste@kbin.earth
    0·
    23 days ago

    Applegate said that while everyone in her life was relieved, her reaction to the news was that she was “not happy at all,” noting, “You don’t get misdiagnosed and then all of a sudden I’m better. I haven’t gotten better, Jamie. 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.”

    From the USA Today article. I gather this is really common reaction for people with chronic or progressive illnesses, when they find out they don’t have the terrible thing they were misdiagnosed with. Like, everyone else is all “yay! no MS!” and the person who is still experiencing the symptoms that led to the misdiagnosis is like “ok, but I’m not suddenly healthy, and now I have to start over.” You can at least plan things when you know what you have.

    Her symptoms sound really bad, too, and if there’s a treatment for what she does have, she’s not getting it.

    • Lumidaub@feddit.org
      0·
      23 days ago

      Every time a blood test comes back as “perfectly normal” I want to throw shit at people.

        • TheArtfulLlama@lemmy.zip
          01·
          22 days ago

          My BIL and I (a girl) both had terrible stomach issues, something I had been dealing with for almost 7 years before he got his issues. Within a year and a half he was diagnosed with severe celiac and kidney stones and is now perfectly pain free. Meanwhile I’ve now been dealing with my issues for 9 years, had a laporoscopy that helped a bit, and have a medication that helps most of the time, but I still get horrible flare ups now and then with my doctors shrugging their shoulders and telling me that’s life.

          I’m so happy for my BIL to be healed but I can’t help but be enraged that I’m still dealing with my issues with little to no answers.