Selma Blair's MS diagnosis reveals battle chronic illness sufferers like me fight to be taken seriously
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The second to last time I saw the actress Selma Blair onscreen was in a 2018 horror film called “Mom and Dad,” a Hulu recommendation based on my questionable taste in gory dark comedies. The premise is straightforward — parents all over the world wake up one day and, charged by an unknown static force, want to murder their children. Not all children, just their own. Nicolas Cage, playing essentially Nicolas Cage, is the dad to Blair’s mom. Afterwards, I couldn’t stop recommending the movie to anyone unlucky enough to be in earshot. The film may not have been good, but it offered a possible, albeit deranged, meditation on the underexpressed frustrations — loss and sacrifice — of suburbia and middle-age and parenthood.
And then, I didn’t think about Blair for a while. Until, that is, she reappeared Oscars weekend , resplendent in a Ralph & Russo gown and custom-made, monogrammed cane . Blair has multiple sclerosis , a fact she had not spoke publicly about since first revealing her illness in October of 2018 . Blair followed up her Vanity Fair Oscars party red carpet walk with an interview on ABC “ Good Morning America, ” however, that candidly discussed her diagnosis and its aftermath.
Blair spoke about how for years she had been “giving it everything to seem normal,” unaware that she was in the midst of an MS flare-up and had been since the 2011 birth of her son. She spoke about how doctors assured her that the crippling fatigue she was experiencing was “just” exhaustion related to the ordinary tribulations of motherhood. None of the early doctors believed her complaints warranted further evaluation, like an MRI. This, despite the fact she sometimes needed to pull over and take a nap on the short drive home from her son’s school.
As she spoke, my mind flashed briefly to my own past exchange with a male gastroenterologist years earlier. “After I eat, I feel like my body is unable to function,” I explained, carefully. “Sometimes I feel this...this rage, or these heart palpitations and it’s just...I can’t take it.” I trailed off. This wasn’t going to work. I was sweaty, frustrated and weak, and he was busy and unimpressed. He recommended I look into better ways to better manage my stress and my post-meal anxiety.
Two months later I was diagnosed with LADA , a slow-progressing form of type 1 diabetes in adults. It turns out I didn’t need to meditate after a meal, I needed to take insulin before it.
Chronic illness narratives are clunky, and fraught with the emotional baggage the host carries from doctor to doctor in hopes of an answer. Often it is only after a diagnosis has been made, that the onset of vague symptoms — headaches, fatigue, nausea, anxiety — can be seen for what they inevitably signify. Selma Blair’s public coming out, as it were, is important for several reasons, not least of which is simple awareness. But she has also highlighted a particularly sticky and frequently gendered issue felt acutely by those of us with chronic illness who can struggle for years to get the medical profession to even acknowledge something is amiss.
“It’s called a snowflake disease because it’s different, like a fingerprint, for everyone,” Blair explained partway through her interview, detailing how her symptoms appeared in non-linear batches. This phenomenon is true for MS but arguably it’s also true for many other chronic conditions, certainly the autoimmune kind to which my own body has become finely attuned. I also have Grave’s disease , a thyroid condition in which my body makes too much thyroid hormone. Under control now, its origin story is riddled with fits and starts, periodic episodes of mania, insomnia and a decade-long bout of chronic diarrhea.
Selma Blair attends the 91st Academy Awards Vanity Fair party in Beverly Hills, California on Feb. 24, 2019. Dia Dipasupil / Getty Images The precise cause (or causes) of MS remain unknown and there is no single “ MS test ” that can be administered at the start of symptoms. But its prevalence rate is significantly higher in women than it is in men. Indeed, a good chunk of all autoimmune diseases disproportionately affect women , and, like MS specifically, can take years to properly diagnose. This means, on average, there are thousands more women than men going to American doctors each year complaining of fatigue, headache, or pain only to have their symptoms dismissed or misdiagnosed as simply the consequences of modern living.
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I can totally relate to this. But I am curious to hear from others what they think.
I am suffering from spinal stenosis and scoliosis in my lower back that is inoperable. I also have advanced arthritis in both hips and will need hip replacement in both hips in the near future. I also have tendinitis and inflammation in my left shoulder that keeps popping and slipping out of joint.
The aliments in my lower back and hips radiate pain down both legs, and cause painful and debilitating muscle spasms in my back that prevents me from standing for any length of time. The tendinitis and inflammation in my left shoulder causes tremors in my hand that at times makes it hard to hold or pick up things. I now need a cane to walk, and cannot walk for too long.
Sleep is intermittent due to the pain in my lower back and hips.
I am now seeing a Pain Management Specialist for my back and Orthopedic Specialist for my hips and shoulder. The Pain Specialist has me on a low dose pain killer that provides very minimal relief for the pain.
I just wish that these doctors could really feel my pain, then they would know that simply feeding me pills is not really addressing the issues. The pain limits my mobility, and at times it is depressing.
However, I know there are others who are much much worse off than I am, so I thank the Creator that although I am suffering with my ailments, I am among the lucky ones who are far better off.
So I wake up every day and just do the bet I can to live a full life, and be happy.
I remember school administrators making the comment "she doesn't look sick" when discussing my daughters lyme disease. Yeah, the med ones and the psych ones too.
Assholes.
My sister was diagnosed with multiple scerlosis in 2001. For the past 18 years she has suffered few serious effects of the illness , no doubt helped by the extremely expensive drug she takes every month. Her MS drug costs 8000 dollars per month.
She was just diagnosed however with trigeminal neuralgia which is an extremely painful condition effecting the face. She told me that when it hits her she falls over from the pain, which lasts a few seconds each time. She told me yesterday that it has been happening a few times each day recently. The neurologist told her it is being caused by her multiple scerlosis.
I have read a few things about it and watched a video or two about it and it is frightening me. It is nicknamed the suicide disease because some people who suffer from the condition express that the pain makes them want to kill themselves.
I pray to God my baby sister doesnt get to that stage. Hopefully medicine can help her.
My sincere prayers go with your sister and your family. I pray that one day they will find a cure for such diseases. Maybe if they spent a bit more money on finding a cure instead of lining the pockets of the administrators they might actually find one.
Thank you RW. I was unaware you suffer from a physically debilitating condition yourself. My prayers are with you as well.
Thank you JR. (smile)