Christina Applegate broke down in tears on the latest episode of her MeSsy podcast, revealing that the multiple sclerosis diagnosis she’s lived with for years was wrong. Her doctor has now confirmed she was misdiagnosed in 2021.
Her doctor delivered the news by saying, “Congratulations, you don’t have MS.” The news didn’t come as a relief. “I was, like, not happy at all,” the 54-year-old said.
Applegate was returning after roughly 7 months away from the show she co-hosts with Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who’s lived with MS for nearly 25 years.
“Everybody else was so happy.” The problem is that nothing about her health has actually improved.
“You don’t get misdiagnosed and then all of the sudden I’m better,” she said. “I haven’t gotten better. If anything, I’ve gotten worse.”
Applegate says she still has every symptom she had before, and now no explanation for any of them. She still needs a wheelchair for doctor visits and can’t walk from the car to the room.
By attacking the brain and spinal cord, MS breaks down the communication between the brain and the rest of the body. Its symptoms, including fatigue, blurred vision, numbness, muscle weakness and trouble walking, overlap with plenty of other conditions.
Neurologist Dr. Marwa Kaisey, who appeared on the podcast, explained that an MS diagnosis relies on a set of criteria because there’s no single definitive test. White-matter lesions on an MRI can have other causes, she said. She put misdiagnosis rates at around 1 in 5 in some specialty clinics.
“It’s clear now that they’re finding something different, something else is going on,” she said. She’s now facing what she described as an investigation her doctors will have to work through to figure out what’s been happening since 2021.
The Married… with Children star, who became one of the most visible public advocates for people living with MS, said the misdiagnosis left her feeling like she let people down. “I had a reason as to why my day sucked every day. And now I don’t have a reason and it’s very unnerving and it’s really confusing for me.”