Selma Blair was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2018 and she’s been fighting the good fight against the autoimmune disease since then.
The Cruel Intentions actress suffered from severe pain and physical disability due to MS. Further, she found it difficult to speak and couldn’t use her left leg. There came a time when she had to deal with all the pain for a year and had to undergo stem cell transplant as well as chemotherapy to help her improve her immune system.
On Monday, the 49-year-old actress made a virtual appearance on discovery+ Television Critics Association where she promoted her upcoming documentary, “Introducing Selma Blair”. She also shared the good news that she’s now in remission.
The celeb said, “My prognosis is great. I’m in remission. Stem cell put me in remission. It took about a year after stem cell for the inflammation and lesions to really go down.”
As far as sharing her story through her documentary, she revealed, “I was reluctant to talk about it because I felt this need to be more healed and more fixed. I’ve accrued a lifetime of some baggage in the brain that still needs a little sorting out or accepting. That took me a minute to get to that acceptance. It doesn’t look like this for everyone.”
She added, “I have really felt unwell and misunderstood for so long that it’s just me.”
Blair also mentioned that it was tough for her and her 10-year-old son, Arthur. She explained, “It’s not that MS was on a path killing me. I mean it was killing me with this flare lasting so long. I was so burnt out. If there was an option to halt me, to rebalance after being hit so hard with that last flare, it’s absolutely for my son. I have no desire to leave him alone right now.”
The After star said that for some people getting an MS diagnosis “can be very isolating” but that wasn’t the case with her because has lots of friends and family who support her.
She said, “People took great care of me. I never really like life. I do now — strange, huh? Just because life’s so weird. I was so scared in life. To suddenly start to find an identity and a safety in me, to figure out boundaries, time management and energy. I’m having the time of my life.”
She concluded by saying that her fame helped brought awareness to MS and at the same time gave hope to those who have it.
Blair said, “To hear even just me showing up with a cane or sharing something that might be embarrassing, it was a key for a lot of people in finding comfort in themselves and that means everything to me. I’m thrilled that I have some platform. In no means am I saying that I’m speaking for all people in this condition or any condition of chronic illness, I’m speaking my story and I that helps normalize one thing to open the door for other people to be comfortable in telling their stories. I’m thrilled to have this here.”
