Actress Jamie-Lynn Sigler is finally getting some answers, after her 10-year-old son, Beau, spent the last four weeks hospitalized for what was initially thought to be simply a virus. She wrote: “4 weeks ago, what seemed like a normal virus for our son, turned into a nightmare. Beau has what we believe to be, ADEM.
To say this has been hard, is an understatement, and I’ve never felt more broken. But I have also never felt more love.” ADEM is a rare and severe inflammatory autoimmune disorder affecting the central nervous system.
It often follows a viral or bacterial infection. According to the Cleveland Clinic, the inflammation from ADEM can lead to symptoms including headache, confusion, weakness, and numbness. The disease can cause damage to the brain’s myelin, the protective covering that surrounds nerve fibers.
During an Aug. 6 episode of the “MeSsy” podcast she co-hosts with Christina Applegate, the “Sopranos” star gave further details on the health update, noting how important it is to “trust your intuition.” She recalled Beau’s pediatrician initially telling her husband, Cutter Dykstra, that their son had a virus before he spiked the high fever.
Multiple hospital visits and unanswered diagnoses followed. “Nobody could understand why he was getting worse and not getting better. It was and has been like the darkest, hardest, most [expletive] thing I’ve ever been through.
Every time you would get, like, a little bit of good news, you would get sl.