Getting Down and Dirty on All Things MS with the MeSsy Podcast
I’m a bit of an MS podcast junkie. I’m a regular listener of several MS podcasts: FUMS, The MS Gym, Thriving Over Surviving, Tripping On Air, Idiots Go Running, and the now discontinued This Is MS (I miss this one, it was great). There’s a new kid on the block in the MS podcasting world, MeSsy. What’s so interesting about MeSsy? Well, it stars Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Christina Applegate, two of the most famous people living with this gnarly disease. In case you’ve been living under a rock for the last few decades, Christina Applegate played Kelly Bundy on Married… with Children, she has starred in several hit comedies, including Bad Moms and Anchorman, and she most recently played Jen Harding in the critically acclaimed series Dead to Me. Jamie-Lynn Sigler played Meadow Soprano on The Sopranos (still one of the best TV series ever made if you ask me). She has gone on to star in many movies and TV series, including Entourage and Big Sky.
There’s a few reasons why I enjoy listening to MS podcasts. First, I’m still relatively new to this whole living with MS thing (diagnosed August 17, 2021), so the opportunity to learn from others living with the disease is always welcomed. It’s also one of the ways that I connect with the MS community. Hearing others share their experiences living with MS makes my own reality a bit less isolating. I hope that I can help others in this way by sharing my experiences here on the Life Among the Clouds blog. The FUMS podcast is even where I learned about the study that I am now participating in to evaluate the role of nutrition in the management of MS. Some of the MS podcasts that I follow also serve as inspiration. Seriously, it would be impossible to listen to Colin Goodman’s story (Idiots Go Running) of becoming an ultramarathon runner after being diagnosed with MS and not be incredibly inspired.
After listening to the first episode of MeSsy, I was struck by how very much I related to what Jamie and Christina had to say. It’s incredible how, despite each person living with MS having different symptoms, different treatments, and different personal backgrounds, we all share in so many similarities. In the first episode, “How Are You?”, they discuss what an incredibly loaded question this is for someone living with MS, or really for anyone going through adversity. As Jamie stated, “everybody has something”. I wrote a blog post on this very topic a couple of years ago, “I’m Good, I’m Alright, I’m Fine, I’m… Lying”. Christina spoke about how she faced criticism from a friend when she was honest about how she was doing. She learned that this friend had said that she was too “woe is me”. This had a chilling effect for Christina when it comes to being open and honest about how she’s feeling. Christina has gone back to saying “I’m fine” when asked this loaded question. Though she did share that FINE is just an acronym for “Fucked Up, Insecure, Neurotic, and Emotional”. I have tried to avoid those canned answers to “how are you?” since being diagnosed with MS, because claiming to be alright, good, or fine just feels wrong. But there’s always that worry about being a gigantic buzzkill.
Christina was diagnosed with MS in the same month that I received my diagnosis, August 2021. She was immediately out of the closet with her diagnosis. Jamie, on the other hand, was diagnosed in 2002 and lived with MS as a secret until coming out about it in 2016. It is clear that Christina respects the wisdom that Jamie brings to the table when it comes to living with this disease. She has over 20 years of experience. On the other hand, it is clear that Jamie respects Christina’s openness about living with this disease. Jamie really struggled with sharing this truth about herself, fearing that openness would cost her dearly. It will be interesting as a listener of the podcast to get both the perspective of someone who has lived with MS for a couple of decades, and the perspective of someone relatively newly diagnosed.
Christina shared another sentiment that I really connected with as a listener of the podcast. She is a breast cancer survivor and she often serves as a cheerleader and shoulder to cry on for those going through a cancer diagnosis. However, she feels uncomfortable doing this for people newly diagnosed with MS. She explained that this is because she is “on the other side” of cancer. She has recovered. But there is no “other side” of MS. This is her forever. She will never recover. I found this very relatable. No one expects to wake up one day and be sick with an illness from which they will never recover. But that’s exactly what happened to Jamie, Christina, me, and millions of others living with MS and other incurable illnesses.
It’s clear from the first episode of MeSsy that Jamie and Christina are going to use their sizeable platform to be honest about living with MS. In the first episode Christina said “I can’t be an advocate, I can barely advocate for myself right now”. And yet, by putting MeSsy out there into the world, she is being an advocate, whether she realizes it or not. She doesn’t need to be an inspiration to be an advocate. Saying “I have MS and having MS sucks” is, in itself, a form of advocacy. It tells the rest of us living with this disease that we aren’t alone when we say “having MS sucks”. There’s power in that. Being honest will make others feel less alone.
MeSsy isn’t going to just be about MS. It’s going to be a podcast about life, with MS playing a key role because this podcast about life is being presented by two women living with MS. They have let us know that we can expect to hear from some of their friends and “Bravolebrities”. We can also expect to hear little nuggets of wisdom from their experiences with MS. The first of which was to follow The MS Gym (I can also vouch for this little nugget of wisdom). Based on episode one, I’m looking forward to episode two. I definitely recommend checking out this newest addition to the MS podcasting landscape.
