Christina Applegate has been hospitalized after a new health issue left her "screaming" in pain, as she gives updates from her hospital bed.
Applegate continues to share her journey with fans through her MeSsy podcast, which she co-hosts with actress Jamie-Lynn Sigler.
In a recent episode, recorded from a hospital bed in Los Angeles, Applegate spoke candidly about her current health situation, revealing that she had been hospitalized due to excruciating pain that left her “screaming.”
The actress, best known for her roles in Married... With Children and Dead to Me, opened up to listeners about how she ended up in the hospital while flying back from Europe, where she had been visiting family.
"I’m staying here because I want answers. I want every test that you can possibly think of or ones that you haven’t even thought of, and I want them done," she shared, reflecting her determination to get to the bottom of her ongoing health issues.
The following day, Applegate experienced an intense flare-up.
She described feeling as though "my appendix is bursting" and recalled being in “so much pain,” leading to an emergency CT scan at 2 in the morning.
The results revealed that Applegate was suffering from a kidney infection that had spread to her other kidney. "I’m just gonna be here," she said of her hospital stay, noting that she was receiving intravenous antibiotics to treat the infection.
While she was undergoing treatment, Applegate, 53, also joked about the situation, despite the pain.
"Like, what am I back-wiping? Like, seriously, I’m 53," she quipped, adding, "I have the cleanest vagina … I’m a clean girl down yonder."
Even amidst her challenges, Applegate’s humor remained a constant. "I’m holding in a bag o’ tears right now," she shared. "I sometimes fall into the nurse’s arms like a freako, just like crying."
This hospitalization comes on the heels of Applegate’s ongoing battle with multiple sclerosis (MS), a diagnosis she publicly shared in August 2021.
On her podcast, she also reflected on the moment she first began to suspect something was wrong in her body.
While filming Dead to Me in 2019, Applegate recalled her first symptom: “I remember falling that day. Hi, first signs of MS.” The incident happened while filming the show’s pilot episode, where she fell during a scene in a field.
Applegate’s Dead to Me co-executive producer, Liz Feldman, recalled the moment but didn't initially suspect the seriousness of Applegate’s condition, chalking it up to exhaustion.
However, Applegate confirmed bluntly, “It was MS.” Feldman, who knew Applegate well, said she could tell something was wrong beyond just fatigue.
"I could just sense that A, she was scared and B, that something was wrong, something in her body was not working the way that she wanted it to," Feldman said.
The actress eventually went public with her MS diagnosis after the final season of Dead to Me became increasingly difficult to film.
“By the time we started shooting in the summer of that same year, I was being brought to set in a wheelchair. Like, I couldn’t walk that far,” Applegate shared in a previous interview.
She also opened up about her symptoms, including intense pain, tingling, and a sense of heaviness in her legs.
"My legs have never been this bad so I don’t know what’s going on. Like, no energy. Legs are just done," she said on her podcast. “Not being able to walk to the bathroom without feeling like I’m going to fall. Insane tingling that just has spurts of tingles that are weird coming from like my butt down."
MS, an autoimmune condition that affects the brain and spinal cord, is known as “the invisible disease” because its symptoms can be difficult to explain and often go unnoticed by others.
Applegate has described the condition as "very lonely" due to the difficulty in conveying the severity of the pain and fatigue she experiences. "I’m in excruciating pain, but I’m just used to it now," she said.