Christina Applegate has opened up about the devastating effects multiple sclerosis can have on her life, making daily tasks impossible.
The actress, 52, was diagnosed with MS in early 2021, going public with the news in August of the same year. She also revealed that she'd first noticed tiny symptoms of the disease up to seven years before she was diagnosed.
The condition made working on the final series of Dead To Me far harder for the star, and she credited co-star Linda Cardellini and showrunner Liz Feldman for their support and willingness to make adjustments to her filming schedule in order for her to make it through shooting.
Now, she has revealed some of the ways in which MS flare-ups can make her day-to-day life extremely difficult, including periods where she is unable to shower or sleep.
Christina Applegate has opened up about her struggles with MS. Credit: Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images
Christina opened up about the "intense" pain she experiences in her legs when she has a relapse, admitting it makes it impossible for her to walk or stand up long enough to be able to shower.
Speaking on an episode of her and Jamie-Lynn Sigler's MeSsy Podcast, which was released on Tuesday, she explained: "My legs have never been this bad so I don’t know what’s going on.
"Like, no energy. Legs are just done. I can’t get circulation. I can’t get them to stop hurting."
She added that her symptoms were: "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."
With the issue affecting her mobility, Christina revealed that it made showering impossible and that she was relying on Cottonelle flushable wet wipes to keep herself clean.
"I haven’t taken a shower in three weeks because I can’t stand in my shower. There is no f**king way I can stand in my shower," she admitted, joking that she had even made her 13-year-old daughter Sadie sniff her armpits "just to make her vomit."
In the episode, which was reportedly recorded "months ago", Christina also revealed that she had been struggling to sleep as another symptom was affecting her eyes.
The Bad Moms star explained: "I haven’t slept for 24 hours because my eye is doing something weird where every time I close my eye to go to sleep my right eye starts to shift like this."
She admitted it had left her "concerned" because she hadn't received a response from her doctor about why that was happening.
After the episode aired, her representative confirmed to People that it had been taped "months ago" and that Christina was through the relapse phase now.
She previously told the outlet that one of the difficult parts of her journey with MS was seeing how it affected her daughter, explaining: "She's had to see the loss of her mom, in the way that I was a mom with her.
"Dancing with her every day. Picking her up from school every day. Working at her school, working in the library. Being present out of the house, out of my bed. She doesn't see those things anymore. This is a loss for her as well. And we're both learning as we're going along."
Mobility can be difficult for the star, who sometimes uses a cane. Credit: Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Christina also previously admitted that she has to wear diapers due to the fact that MS can mean she is unable to make it to the toilet in time when she needs to pee.
She added that her diagnosis was the "worst thing that’s happened" in her "entire life", revealing to Dax Shepard on his Armchair Expert podcast: "I have 30 lesions on my brain. My biggest one is behind my right eye, so my right eye hurts a lot.
"My hand starts to go weird and then I’ll get a seizure-y feeling sometimes in my brain."
