She recounted,"I was self-medicating when he wasn't with me. I was drinking. I was in pain. I wasn't always drinking,but there were times when I couldn't take it."
Blair's worries were compounded when her pain and symptoms were dismissed when she sought medical answers for her mysterious loss of muscle control and overwhelming fatigue.
"I was really struggling with,'How am I gonna get by in life?'And[being] not taken seriously by doctors,just,'Single mother,you're exhausted,financial burden,blah,blah,blah.'"
"I was ashamed and I was doing the best I could and I was a great mother,but it was killing me,"she said,adding she would have to take a nap on the way back from driving her son to school,1.6kms away. Frustrated with her inability to get answers about why her body was breaking down,she reached out to fellow actor Michael J. Fox,who has Parkinson's disease,for help.
"I said,'I don't know who to tell,but I am dropping things. I'm doing strange things,'"Blair said."He got in touch with me and we began conversations. He really helped me ... he gives me hope."
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Telling Arthur,her now 7-year-old son from her two-year marriage to designer Jason Bleick,was surprisingly easy. Though Blair always wanted him to"feel safe,never responsible for me,"he had already seen her fall and experience other motor-control issues.
"I said,'I have something called multiple sclerosis.'And he almost cried and said,'Will it kill you?'I said,'No. I mean,we never know what kills us,Arthur. But this is not the doctor telling me I'm dying.'And he was like,'OK!'"
The actress also discussed her prognosis:"The doctor I saw ... He said within a year I could have - at the time,he said 90 per cent of my abilities back."
Even if that turns out not to be true,she said,"If I can still have a conversation,that's good enough. I want to see where I am."
The biggest lesson MS has taught her?"It's fine to feel really crappy and say,'I gotta,'"Blair said."And my son gets it and now I've learned not to feel guilty."
She admitted she was initially scared of talking,let alone in public.
But she maintained a positive attitude,joking,"No one has the energy to talk when they're in ... a flare-up. But I do,'cause I love a camera."
USA Today