Christina Applegate candidly opened up about how the debilitating symptoms of multiple sclerosis have recently affected her ability to maintain her personal hygiene.
During Tuesday’s episode of her “MeSsy” podcast, the 52-year-old actress revealed that she was suffering a “pretty bad” relapse amid her battle with the chronic disease, which affects the brain and central nervous system.
“I’m gonna be honest with you, I need to buy stock in Cottonelle because I haven’t taken a shower in three weeks,” Applegate told co-host Jamie Lynn-Sigler, who also suffers from MS.
Chrristina Applegate got candid about struggling to maintain her personal hygiene amid her battle with multiple sclerosis.(Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images)
She continued, “Because I can’t stand in my shower. There’s no f—— way I can use my shower.”
“I have such a small bench and my a– is so huge these days that I can’t sit on it, it’s like I slip right off of it,” she added. “So, I’ve been Cottonelle-ing my body.”
The “Dead to Me” star admitted that she didn’t know if the wet wipes “were doing the job so much.”
“I smell so bad. And it’s, like, awful. Thank God I’m always alone so that no one smells me except for Sades,” she said, referring to her daughter Sadie, 12, whom she shares with her husband Martyn Le Noble.
Christina Applegate is pictured with her daughter, Sadie, 12.(Amy Sussman/WireImage/Getty Images)
At the beginning of the episode, the “Married…With Children” alum detailed the severity of her symptoms and how they were impacting different areas of her body. She explained that she was experiencing “intense pain” in her legs that made her unable to walk to the bathroom due to her fear of falling.
Applegate went on to say that she was suffering from “insane tingling” radiating from her backside down her body. She told Sigler that she couldn’t sleep due to movement problems in one of her eyes.
“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 said.
After researching online, Applegate said that she learned her eye problems could be a symptom of MS resulting from possible damage to the optic nerve in her right eye.
“I couldn’t sleep because every time I would close my eyes, my eye would start doing, like, crazy s—,” she explained. “So I have been up for over 24 hours.”
The actress said that she is experiencing a “pretty bad” relapse.(Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Critics Choice Association)
After Sigler asked her podcast co-host if she had contacted her doctors amid her relapse, Applegate shared that she had not yet been able to reach them.
“I’m going to have to go in and see someone because it’s a little scary and it’s freaking me out that, like, my eye is, like gonna burst out of my face or something,” she said. “So I’m a little concerned about that. My legs have never been this bad, so I don’t know what’s going on. Like no energy. Legs are just — just done.”
“Can’t get circulation,” Applegate added. “I can’t get them to stop hurting.”
The Emmy Award winner told Sigler that she had fallen into a “deep depression” after returning from a “win” vacation.
