Jamie-Lynn Sigler celebrates son's hospital discharge after 33-day health scare
Jamie-Lynn Sigler is celebrating her 10-year-old son's discharge from the hospital after receiving a "nightmare" diagnosis and going through weeks of "trauma" earlier this summer.
In July, "The Sopranos" alum's son Beau was diagnosed with acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, or ADEM — a rare inflammatory autoimmune response that affects the central nervous system — after "a normal virus" turned into "a nightmare" for their family. When she initially posted about it on Aug. 6, Sigler revealed they were already four weeks into the ordeal, which included a slate of symptoms that started with days of headaches, fever, fatigue and trouble urinating, then escalated to "severe psychosis" and a cancer scare.
Last week, Sigler said Beau was "busting out" of the children's hospital where he was being treated.
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“After 33 days, we are busting out of here!" Sigler wrote Friday on Instagram, sharing a video of Beau joyfully walking down the hall of the medical facility to much fanfare. "My brave boy, you are a walking miracle. The rest of this story will be Beau’s to tell, if he chooses to one day."
Sigler, 43, also thanked the staff at Dell Children's Medical Center in Austin, Texas, saying that she does not "have enough words" to describe the way they take care of their patients and "guide their families through the process."
"I’m in awe of your patience, dedication, and expertise.... But, no offense.. I hope we never see you again ??" she quipped. "Thank you all for the love and prayers. They worked. ??????"
In her Aug. 6 post, Sigler shared that she simultaneously "never felt more broken" but also "never felt more love."
"The way our friends and family have come to our rescue during this terrible time has been one of the most incredible things to experience," she wrote. "Maybe I could receive it because it wasn’t for me, it was and always will be about Beau. The power of love, community and prayer is so real."
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Still, she admitted, she was left with "so many questions and uncertainty" and sought advice and support from her more than 423,000 Instagram followers.
The "Big Sky" and "Entourage" star, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when she was 20, opened up about her son's health scare on "The Power of Beau" episode of her "MeSsy" podcast, which she co-hosts with her friend and fellow actor Christina Applegate. The episode, which was recorded amid the health crisis and a few days before her Aug. 6 Instagram post, detailed how her son visited multiple emergency rooms and urgent care units before finally getting admitted to a hospital. At various points, he was sleeping constantly, didn't eat for 10 days, lost his ability to use his legs and mouth and had inflammation in his brain and spine. (She also opened up about the toll it took on her, her husband, Cutter, and their 6-year-old son, Jack.)
She noted that the "drugs, trauma and steroids" Beau received during his treatment led to sleep deprivation, "severe psychosis" and looping behavior, as well as a bevy of expletive-laden insults hurled at her. Sigler said she remained by Beau's side during a 12-day stint in an intensive care unit and was shaken by the prospect of a cancerous tumor in his bladder that turned out to be the result of a poorly placed catheter.
"It was and has been the darkest hardest most f— up thing I've ever been through," Sigler said on the podcast. "Every time we would get a little bit of good news, we would get slapped in the face with something else."
But, Sigler said, she remained optimistic.
"You know when we talk about, even for ourselves, like you can't help but feel hope for ourselves?" she told Applegate. "Like even through my darkest of hours of pain through this, I can't believe that he won't be OK."
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
