Christina Applegate Hospitalized for Kidney Infection That Caused ‘So Much Pain, I’m Screaming’

The actress shared that she’s on IV antibiotics to treat an infection in her right kidney that since has spread to her left

Christina Applegate shared that she’s been hospitalized for a kidney infection.Credit : Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty

Christina Applegate has been hospitalized for a kidney infection, which has since spread to both kidneys, causing her to be hospitalized with “so much pain” she said she’s “screaming.”

The Married… With Children alum, 53, recorded the Tuesday, Aug. 5, episode of MeSsy, the podcast she co-hosts with Jamie-Lynn Sigler, from an L.A. hospital as she struggled with severe pain that made her feel like her appendix was bursting.

“I’m home and have been treated for the kidney infection,” Applegate said in a statement to PEOPLE, via her representative, Tuesday afternoon. “As far as my ongoing stomach thing, it’s a work in progress. I was there 7 days.”

While in Europe visiting family, Applegate explained to Sigler that she began to feel unwell. On the flight back, however, she decided to go straight to the hospital, explaining she didn’t want to wake up at 3 a.m. and need to run to the emergency room.

Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Christina Applegate.Astrid Stawiarz/Getty; Phillip Faraone/Getty

“I’m like, I wanna be admitted,” Applegate said, sharing her frustration with treatment during her multiple sclerosis struggle.

She continued, “I’m staying here because I want answers. I want every test that you can possibly think of or ones that you haven’t even thought of, and I want them done.”

The next day, she said, she woke up with an extreme pain on her right side.

“Of course, my brain’s like, ‘Oh, my appendix is bursting,’ ” Applegate recalled.

The pain, she shared, was “radiating” from the back to her front: “So much pain. I’m screaming, and they ordered me an emergency CT at 2 in the morning,” she said, explaining that the scan showed she had a kidney infection — which has since spread to her left kidney as well.

“I’m just gonna be here,” she said, referring to her hospital stay and explaining, “Because of this kidney infection, I have to have intravenous antibiotics right now. And that’s where we’re at.”

The Dead to Me actress shared that doctors thought her condition could be a urinary tract infection, and questioned her wiping technique.

“Like, what am I back-wiping? Like, seriously, I’m 53,” she said, explaining that at a previous visit to the hospital, she’d been asked if she was wiping from front to back, as is recommended by doctors. Applegate said she has “the cleanest vagina … I’m a clean girl down yonder.”

Christina Applegate shared that she’s getting treatment for kidney infections.Rob Latour/Variety/Penske Media via Getty

While she was making jokes, Applegate admitted, “I’m holding in a bag o’ tears right now.”

She added, “I sometimes fall into the nurse’s arms like a freako, just like crying.”