Celine Dion Has Been Diagnosed With Stiff Person Syndrome

December 8, 2022 / Posted by:

This morning, Celine Dion posted a video announcement in both English and French on Instagram and YouTube. In Celine’s video message, a thick layer of somberness covers her, so you know her announcement is not going to bring happy news, like Anna Wintour finally doing something right by devoting an entire Met Gala theme to the kooky glamour of THE GREATEST SINGUH (AND MET GALA GUEST) IN DA WORLD. No, Celine delivered sad news, saying that health woes have been messing with her for a while and that it’s been difficult for her to talk about, but she’s ready to talk about it with her fans. A devastated Celine shared that she’s been diagnosed with a rare and incurable neurological disorder called Stiff Person Syndrome (yes, that’s what it’s really called), which causes muscle spasms and has made it difficult for her to move and sing.

A few months ago, 54-year-old Celine announced that she had to postpone her 2022 tour dates over muscle spasms. Since then, Celine has learned that the cause of all those horrible spasms is SPS and not only has it kept her from soothing our ear holes with her angelic nightingale voice, it has fucked with her whole life.

“Recently, I’ve been diagnosed with a very rare neurological condition called Stiff Person Syndrome, which affects something like one in a million people. While we’re still learning about this rare condition, we now know that this is what has been causing all of the spasms that I’ve been having. Unfortunately, these spasms affect every aspect of my daily life, sometimes causing difficulties when I walk and not allowing me to use my vocal cords to sing the way I’m used to.”

Because Celine needs to focus on getting stronger by working with her doctors and physical therapist, she has canceled a handful of 2023 shows and pushed other shows to 2024.

“It hurts me to tell you today, this means I won’t be ready to restart my tour in Europe in February. I have a great team of doctors working alongside me to help me get better, and my precious children, who are supporting me and giving me hope. I’m working hard with my sports medicine therapist every day to build back my strength and my ability to perform again. But I have to admit, it’s been a struggle. All I know is singing. It’s what I’ve done all my life and it’s what I love to do the most.”

Celine ended the soul-deflating video by wishing love to her fans and telling them that she hopes to see them soon:

“I miss you so much. I miss seeing all of you, being on the stage, performing for you. I always give 100% when I do my shows, but my condition is not allowing me to give you that right now. For me to reach you again, I have no choice but to concentrate on my health at this moment and I have hope that I’m on the road to recovery. This is my focus and I’m doing everything that I can to recuperate. I want to thank you so much for your encouraging wishes of love and support on my social media. This means a lot to me. Take care of yourselves. Be well. I love you guys so much and I really hope I can see you again really soon.”

Here’s the video, which is hard to watch and made me want to bear hug my screen, and I hate hugging!

The SPS Research Foundation says that the disease is hard to diagnose and can lead to disabilities.

Stiff person syndrome (SPS) is a neurological disease with autoimmune features. Symptoms include muscle spasms, hyper-rigidity, debilitating pain, and chronic anxiety. Muscle spasms can be so violent they can dislocate joints and even break bones.

SPS is labeled as a rare disease. But more people are affected than reported due to misdiagnoses. It takes on average seven years to identify. It is often mistaken as Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s, Fibromyalgia, Psychosomatic Illness, Anxiety, Phobia, and other autoimmune diseases.

Patients can be disabled, wheelchair bound or bed-ridden, unable to work and care for themselves.

Celine Dion is such a light, and her charisma and voice have lifted me up many times, so this brings the sads. But I do hope and think that Celine will be back on stage to entertain the masses and tame drunk messes. In the meantime, I would try to serenade Celine with healing musical notes as she has done for me, but she’s already dealing with enough horribleness and doesn’t need to deal with her ears falling off too.

Pic: Lionel Hahn/Abacausa/INSTARimages.com

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