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Christina Applegate tells how I lay in bed screaming with MS pain

Christina Applegate gave insight into the physical side of multiple sclerosis, talking about how the disease often leaves her “screaming” in pain.

“I was lying in bed screaming – this stabbing pain, the pain, this pressing,” he said Dead to me the actress said, revealing that her symptoms had progressed during the Nov. 5 episode of MeSsy, the podcast she co-hosts with Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who also suffers from MS.

In the episode, the pair spoke with Rory Kandel, the owner of Rory's Bakehouse, who shared that her MS also “manifests itself in pain.”

“It feels like I have knives in my stomach,” said Kandel. “For example, I’m lying in bed and I wake up and I physically can’t turn from side to side.”

Christina Applegate and Jamie Lynn Sigler.

John Russo


“It’s the worst,” said Applegate, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2021. The Cleveland Clinic explains that the progressive disease “damages the protective covering around the nerves, myelin, in your central nervous system. It can lead to muscle weakness, vision problems, numbness and memory problems.”

“Is that how you feel?” Kandel asked, prompting Applegate to reply, “Every single day of my life.”

“Sometimes I can't even pick up my phone because it's now gotten into my hands, so I try to grab my phone or my remote to turn on the TV, or sometimes I can't even hold them. I can’t open bottles now.”

“But we look good,” said Kandel.

“Because that’s the beauty of the invisible illness,” Applegate said.

Rory's Bakehouse owner Rory Kandel.

Rory's Bakehouse/Instagram


The Married…with children Alum shared that depending on her pain level, I just lie in bed the whole time. I mean, I’ve worked for almost 50 years, so I think I’m somewhat okay with that.”

Getting up in the morning can be so painful that Applegate compared it to the phrase “the floor is lava.” The floor is lava.”

“It looks like someone stuck a hot poker up my asshole,” Sigler said of the first steps of the day.

“I put my feet on the ground and they hurt exceedingly when touched,” Applegate said. “I thought, yes. I'm going to go back to my bed and pee in my diaper because I don't feel like walking all the way to the damn toilet,” she said, quickly adding, “Actually, I'm not going to lie here and pee in my bed diaper. This is just a joke.”

“But it’s so damn painful and so hard and so uncomfortable.”

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