Jamie-Lynn Sigler is reflecting on the scariest time in her life when her 11-year-old son Beau was hospitalized with a life-threatening autoimmune condition last summer.
“Those were the hardest days I’ve ever had in my entire life,” Sigler, 43, told People. “It was probably the most helpless I’ve ever been.”
Last July, “The Sopranos” alum’s “healthy, active” son, whom she shares with husband Cutter Dykstra, had a high fever for a week straight, along with headaches and the inability to urinate. “He was screaming in pain,” she recalled.
Beau was admitted to Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin, Texas, where he was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, which causes inflammation of the central nervous system.
“He got worse every day,” Sigler said about the two weeks spent in the hospital. “He lost his ability to walk, and then to talk.”
“Then he couldn’t eat or move his mouth,” the podcast host shared before noting he also lost 25 lbs. “There was nothing recognizable about my son.”
“My husband and I would look at each other like, ‘Is this really happening?’” Sigler reflected. “Truly, we thought he was going to die.”
The mom-of-two stayed at the hospital with Beau for more than a month while Dykstra, 35, was home with their youngest son, Jack, 7.
In those times, Sigler drew from her own health experience: living with Multiple Sclerosis for many years.
“It was wild to watch my son have neurological issues that mirrored mine in very many ways,” she told the outlet. “My experience understanding the body and inflammation and the brain helped. From 6 a.m. till 8 p.m., I was on it. I was a coach. I would speak to him and tell him he could do it.” But, she says, “the nights were when I could fall apart and just be a mom and be completely heartbroken and terrified.”
Sigler credited her family and friends for supporting her through the tough times, including her “MeSsy” podcast co-host Christina Applegate, who also has MS. “She was there for me in a really scary moment. We sat in prayer together.”
“My friends joke that on my tombstone it’s going to say in quotes, ‘I’m fine.’ But for the first time in my life I was actually able to accept help because it wasn’t for me — or it didn’t seem like it was for me in that moment — it was for Beau,” she continued. “To realize how loved and supported you are, it’s something I’m going to take with me for the rest of my life.”
Luckily, 33 days after he was admitted, Beau was able to walk out of the hospital. “The care that we received, the attention that every family receives, was unparalleled,” Sigler gushed.
“We were just in a constant state of gratitude.” But, now, she said, “There’s still a road of recovery.”
Beau has returned to school, baseball and is working with a personal trainer to regain the strength that he lost.
“There’s some residual things physically we deal with, and because of what he sees me deal with, he knows I understand. I know it’s hard to not be able to do something that you used to be able to do,” Sigler added.
“Mentally he went through something profound and he’s trying to figure out how to integrate that back into life and still be the 11-year-old little boy he was,” she reflected, despite Beau not being able to remember anything from his stay.
“When you have a near-death experience, there’s an intense amount of gratitude you have for life, and he constantly wants to express it, which is beautiful. He wants to go up and tell everyone he loves them and how amazing they are. But for another 11-year-old, that’s not how you do things.”
