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Jamie-Lynn Sigler, famous interpreter of Meadow in the HBO series The Sopranosgrew up and talks about her multiple sclerosis diagnosis and being a mom in a new edition of bathroom chronicles podcast.
“I can’t give up,” Sigler says. “I don’t want to give up on life. I have beautiful children. I have my own dreams and aspirations.”
Sigler, 41, was diagnosed with central nervous system disease at the age of 20.
“I think it would be really cool for my kids to witness a miraculous healing too, how they could endure that throughout their lives,” Sigler said. “I have like my vision that I always cling to that I try to see when I meditate or whatever, and it’s always me running with them.”
Sigler has two sons with her husband Cutter Dykstra. She said earlier that her doctor told her it was possible to get pregnant even with MS. “You can absolutely carry and you can absolutely have a really healthy pregnancy, a healthy delivery,” she says. “And actually a lot of people feel better during pregnancy. And in my first pregnancy, it did.”
Sigler is an example of how a person can live a full life with this incurable disease. Here’s what you need to know about multiple sclerosis.
Multiple sclerosis is a potentially disabling disease of the brain and spinal cord, according to the Mayo Clinic.
“Multiple sclerosis is a disease in which the body’s immune system attacks the protective covering of nerve cells in the brain, optic nerve and spinal cord, called the myelin sheath”, says Dr. W. Oliver Tobinneurologist at the Mayo Clinic.
“This sheath is often compared to the insulation of an electrical wire,” adds Tobin. “When this coating is damaged, it exposes the nerve fiber itself, which can slow down or block the signal passing through it. The nerve fibers themselves can also be damaged.”
The body can repair damage to the myelin sheath, but it’s not perfect, Tobin says. “The resulting damage leaves lesions or scars, and that’s where the name comes from, multiple sclerosis, multiple scarring.”
“Women are up to three times more likely than men to have relapsing-remitting MS,” Tobin says. “The risk of MS in the general population is about 0.5%. If a parent or sibling has it, your risk is about double, or about 1%.
MS can occur at any age, but usually appears in people between the ages of 20 and 40, he adds.
“Multiple sclerosis was thought to be a disease that mainly affected northern Europeans, and then it was discovered that the further you go from the equator, the more likely you are to develop multiple sclerosis,” says Dr. Ram Narayanneurologist in the multiple sclerosis program at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix.
“Now that’s not always true. Some pockets around the equator also have a higher incidence of multiple sclerosis. But in general we think the further you go from the equator, the greater the risk of developing MS is high.”
The risk of developing MS increases in people with low vitamin D levels and low sun exposure, who are overweight, who smoke and who have had viruses like Epstein-Barr virus.
Signs and symptoms of MS vary widely from patient to patient and depend on the location and severity of nerve fiber damage in the central nervous system, the Mayo Clinic says.
Typical symptoms of multiple sclerosis include “loss of vision in one eye, loss of power in an arm or leg, or sensory disturbances in an arm or leg that last longer than 24 hours,” says Tobin.
“Sometimes it can be very confusing when you have a patient, especially a young patient, who presents with tingling or numbness,” says Dr. Kiren Kresa-Reahl, Senior Medical Director of Clinical Sciences (Neurology) at Atara Biotherapeutics, a pharmaceutical company in South San Francisco, California. She adds: “If it has to do with the central nervous system, the brain or the spinal cord, … it will usually affect a patient from top to bottom, perhaps from the waist down.”
People with severe MS may not be able to walk independently or at all. Others may see long periods of remission without any new symptoms, depending on the type of MS they have.
Other symptoms may include dizziness; problems with sexual, bowel and bladder function; fatigue; slurred speech; and cognitive problems and mood disorders, according to the Mayo Clinic.
MS is incurable, but there are treatments to manage the disease.
“Symptoms of a relapse usually appear over 24 to 48 hours, last for a few days to a few weeks, and then improve, on the order of 80 to 100 percent,” Tobin says.
“If you have an MS attack or relapse, your doctor may prescribe corticosteroids to reduce or improve your symptoms,” adds Tobin. “And if your attack symptoms don’t respond to steroids, another option is plasmapheresis or plasma exchange, which is a treatment similar to dialysis. About 50% of people who don’t respond to steroids have an improvement significant with brief plasma exchange.
Tobin says there are more than 20 drugs to treat MS. “As learning to function with MS can be difficult, there are medical experts ready to work with you, to help you manage it, so you can continue to live a full life,” he adds.
Talk to your doctor about your concerns. In the meantime, adopting a healthy lifestyle can help manage MS symptoms. This includes staying physically active and eating a healthy diet.
“Mental health is also an important consideration, so it’s important to maintain personal connections with friends and family and try to stay involved in your hobbies, but also be kind to yourself and realistic about what you’re ready,” Tobin says. “It can change from day to day, so you can allow yourself if something feels too much or you need to cancel plans.”
There are also support groups for people with MS.
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