Selma Blair Just Shared A Health Update About Her Pain On Instagram
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Actress Selma Blair has been very open about her difficult health journey with multiple sclerosis (or MS) and its impact on her mobility. From keeping her more than three million Instagram followers updated about her health, to writing about her autoimmune disease journey in her New York Times Best Selling memoir Mean Baby, Selma has been dedicated to speaking up about MS, raising awareness and informing people about the disease.
In her book, the Hellboy star detailed how the disease affected her childhood—including what it was like for her to live with a plethora of symptoms that weren't taken seriously. Recently, Selma gave her Instagram followers a look at the current symptoms she’s facing from MS, even though she’s still in remission. “I still get tired, I still am stiff, like, all the time,” she said.
Selma also revealed that she’s currently facing some pretty uncomfortable symptoms from another condition that is prevalent in MS patients, Ehler-Danlos syndrome (EDS) — a genetic condition that makes the connective tissue in your body weaker than it should be, according to Cleveland Clinic.
Since going public about her MS diagnosis back in 2018, she has kept fans in the loop about the speed bumps she’s encountered while navigating this disease.
Here’s a look back at her MS journey so far:
What is multiple sclerosis, or MS?
MS is an often disabling autoimmune disease of the central nervous system, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. With MS, the body's immune system attacks nerve endings in the central nervous system, the National Institutes of Health explains. This disrupts the flow of information in the brain, as well as between the brain and body.
Symptoms can vary, but may include:
Fatigue
Numbness or tingling
Trouble walking
Weakness
Feelings of stiffness
Vision issues
Dizziness
Bowel problems
Pain
Emotional changes
Depression
2018: Selma is diagnosed with MS.
Selma initially shared that she had symptoms for at least five years before her official diagnosis, but thought she was just suffering from a pinched nerve.
“I have #multiplesclerosis,” she wrote on Instagram. “I am in an exacerbation. By the grace of the lord, and will power and the understanding producers at Netflix, I have a job. A wonderful job. I am disabled. I fall sometimes. I drop things. My memory is foggy. And my left side is asking for directions from a broken gps. But we are doing it.”
Selma said that her friend, Elizabeth Berkley, urged her to see her brother, Jason Berkley, D.O., a neurologist in Los Angeles. Dr. Berkley diagnosed Selma with MS after "finding lesions on [an] MRI." (Lesions, or plaques as they are sometimes called, are areas of damage or scarring in the brain caused by the disease, per MSTrust.org).
"I have had symptoms for years," Selma said, "but was never taken seriously until I fell down in front of [Jason Berkley] trying to sort out what I thought was a pinched nerve."
Selma also said in the post that she thinks she could have been suffering from the incurable disease for 15 years before her diagnosis.
2019: Selma undergoes a stem cell transplant and chemo.
Selma revealed in 2019 that she was undergoing chemotherapy and a revolutionary stem cell transplant treatment to help with her MS symptoms. The treatments, she said in a since-deleted Instagram, caused her to lose her hair and forced her to be away from her home state of California—and her son—for two months.
She also said that she "had more chemo than they usually do for cancer patients, because they almost kill you," at the Time 100 Health Summit.
2019-2020: Selma provides updates on how the disease and treatments affects her day-to-day life.
In a 2019 Instagram post, the actress explained that she’d been experiencing vision issues, being unable to focus her eyes due to chemo and high doses of prednisone.
In 2020, Selma went on to share that at times, she "was a mess with MS" and couldn't feel her hips or her left leg. But she was still trying to take things slow.
"I will always have MS, I now see. Always. But I am going to learn how to use this body, brain and emotions," she wrote in her IG caption.
August 2021: Selma is in remission.
While MS is incurable, the symptoms can improve for days, weeks, months, or years at a time, per Healthline.
"My prognosis is great. I'm in remission. Stem cell put me in remission," Selma said during a Discovery+ TCA panel in support of her documentary, per People. "It took about a year after stem cell for the inflammation and lesions to really go down."
Selma also said that she was "reluctant to talk about it because I felt this need to be more healed and more fixed.”
May 2022: Selma publishes her memoir.
Selma’s memoir, Mean Baby, quickly became a New York Times best-seller. In the book, she discusses her addiction to alcohol, relationship with her family, and how her MS diagnosis changed her life.
In one excerpt, Selma writes: "Now finally here it was, my diagnosis was the validation I’d been searching for… that I was human and that it was ok.”
Mean Baby: A Memoir of Growing Up
amazon.com
$22.48
September 2022: She attends the 2022 Emmy Awards.
Selma received a standing ovation when she appeared at the 2022 Emmy Awards.
“I never imagined I would walk across that stage and be given the truest gift for me. Love. Applause. Standing along with me,” she wrote on Instagram the following day.
“I have never been on this stage before. I haven’t had awards like this in my career, but my God, to be recognized by these brilliant talents. And loves. And icons. The ones who give us their life for this art. What admiration I have. I am basking in this moment. I thank you for having me. For embracing me. Humbled with gratitude.”
2022: Selma competes on DWTS season 31.
In September, Selma said on Instagram that she’s “so unbelievably grateful I can’t stop crying” about the fact that she gets to be on the next season of Dancing with the Stars.
She also told Good Morning America that she was “beyond thrilled” about the opportunity.
October 2022: Selma says she will leave DWTS and performs a final dance.
Selma had strong performances throughout the first few weeks of the season, but on October 17, viewers learned that it would be her last night on the dance floor.
In a pre-recorded clip, Selma revealed that she'd be withdrawing from the competition. "I had these MRIs and the results came back and it all adds up to—I can't, I can't go on with the competition," she told her partner Sasha Farber. "My body is definitely taking a hit. It's way too much for the safety of my bones... so I could do extensive damage."
For Selma's final performance, the pair waltzed to "What The World Needs Now Is Love," and she noted that the dance was dedicated to "everyone that has tried and hoped they could do more, but also, the power in realizing it’s time to walk away."
Many fans and other celebs praised Selma for her courage, including her Cruel Intentions costar, Sarah Michelle Gellar. "Selma, I’ve never been so proud of you (and I’m often proud of you). You make the rest of us believe that we can do anything," she wrote in a lengthy, heartfelt Instagram post.
Reflecting on what she's learned as a competitor, Selma shared that she realized "how much I love to be around people...how much I love to want to do something again."
March 2023: Selma says that she’s still in remission.
Selma sat down with Today Show host Kristen Walker and shared that while the pain is always present, she’s now “doing better every day” since entering remission in 2021.
The actress told the host that she’s experienced “a lot of discrimination,” because some people think she’s putting on an act. “And then I have a dog, and ‘I just want a dog with me.’ So there’s a lot of tricky stuff,” she shares. “But the real fact is I really am in pain all the time.”
Selma also explained that she can’t feel when someone touches her, or anything on her skin, even though she feels the pain inside her body. She’s received a hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation, had her bone marrow harvested, and then started chemotherapy to help treat her symptoms, per the outlet.
May 2023: Selma shares more about her life with MS in British Vogue.
For British Vogue’s May 2023 cover, Selma explained that it can be “overwhelming” to work around how constraining her disease can be.
“I can be sat on the couch and then I wake up. I’ve passed out and have no idea where I am,” she told the outlet.
While on set for Hellboy, Selma got through the pain by self-medicating with alcohol. “I was lost and sad and could hardly ever smile. Hence my roles, I imagine,” she explained. She was filled with “terror," worried that someone would find out about her symptoms, which promoted taking a step back from the industry in 2009.
Selma shared that her doctors suggested she keep her diagnosis a secret and that they didn’t think it needed to interfere with her acting career. But because of how open she is with her MS, she thinks “producers are open to,” hiring her.
“I haven’t actively pursued work in acting–it hasn't been the right time yet–but it’s absolutely doable for me. I have to take a leap,” she told the pub.
November 2023: She shares that her symptoms were initially dismissed.
Since she was in her 20s, Selma was “always sick” and it wasn’t until she was in her 40s that she received the diagnosis of MS, per CBS News.
Before the diagnosis, Selma considered herself “a wimp” and was often told that her pain was all in her head. She was told she was depressed or feeling some level of postpartum depression. A doctor even suggested that if she’d a boyfriend, her symptoms may improve, per Entertainment Tonight.
Since she was a child, she noticed the difference between how men and women were treated regarding their health. “It was a gender bias, a lot of it, because there would be a boy in my grade that would go in for the exact same chronic headache and fever, and he is in surgery and a MRI within a week,” she told the pub. “I was never given an MRI even though I always had headaches and fevers and balance problems." Instead, Selma shared that she was called "dramatic" instead.
“When I got the diagnosis at late 40-something it seems, I was surprised, but then I was like ‘Oh of course,’ and when the doctor said the first night, ‘You’ve had this at least 25, 30 years, at least,’ I was happy. I needed it,” she shared with CBS Mornings.
“I want doctors to listen, keep things in mind. And why so afraid of a MRI on a woman?” Selma questioned when urging medical professionals to listen to patients who are experiencing chronic symptoms, per ET.
January 2024: She posts a health update on Instagram.
On January 29, Selma explained in an Instagram video that although she is in remission for MS, she still hurts “all the time.” She said that while often stretching can help with the aches and pains, that's not a good remedy for her.
“It’s hard for me to stretch because of the Ehler-Danlos,” she said.
Those who have EDS will usually have weaker and overly flexible tissue that isn’t strong or supportive as it should be throughout their body. “Your muscles aren’t as stable,” the actress explains.
There’s no cure for EDS, but there are treatments that can help those with the condition manage symptoms, per Cleveland Clinic. The disease can affect your cartilage, bones, blood, and fat, the clinic explains. Roughly 1 in 5,000 people have EDS.
There’s actually a 10 percent increase in prevalence of EDS for people who have MS, per the National Library of Medicine.
“So, the Ehler-Danlos makes me really, really, really stiff because I’ll pull my muscles too easily and then they’re like slack and sit there. So I get some injuries,” Selma shared in the video.
“This is nothing that’s like horrible, scary stuff or anything. It’s just like one of those extra things that turns into a chronic thing, and you have to watch, because people think stretching’s good for you, and I’m technically not allowed to stretch, because I’m always stretching,” the Cruel Intentions actress explained.
Everyone is cheering you on, Selma!
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