NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JUNE 17: Céline Dion attends the “I Am: Celine Dion” New York special screening at Alice Tully Hall on June 17, 2024 in New York City.
Originally appeared on E! Online
After a years-long health battle, a new day has come for Céline Dion.
In her new Prime Video documentary "I Am: Céline Dion," the Grammy winner bravely shares her journey with stiff-person syndrome, an autoimmune and neurological condition that causes muscle spasms and has prevented her from performing in recent years.
During one harrowing scene in the Irene Taylor film, the 56-year-old suffers a spasm in her foot after a recording session for her song "Love Again."
"This is your first spasm for today?" Dion's sports medicine therapist Terrill Lobo asks her. "Or did you have any others, too?"
After she tells him it's her first of the day, Lobo explains, "Part of the disease is that, as soon as you go into a contraction, sometimes the signal to release it, doesn't understand it." Which is why her foot ends up staying in a contracted position.
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Lobo then has Dion lie facing down on a massage table as he tries to relax her foot.
"This gives us an indication that her body, her brain right now is overstimulated," Lobo tells the camera. "And there's something going on and she keeps spasming. That could lead to a crisis."
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While the tearful "My Heart Will Go On" singer isn't able to speak during this time, she's able to communicate by squeezing a team member's hand.
After being administered nasal spray to help her condition, Dion's hands start to loosen up.
"It's sounding like she's coming out," Lobo says. "And if she goes back into a spasm, then we'll do a 9-1-1."
Luckily, Dion starts to feel better and is able to speak again. "Every time something like this happens, it makes you feel so embarrassed," she says. "You don't like to not have control of yourself?"
As for what exactly happened to Dion?
"That anxiety, that panic, that continued spasm that was not breaking then very quickly triggered just a complete whole body spasm," Dion's physician Dr. Amanda Piquet recently told TODAY, clarifying it wasn't a seizure. "This is a spasm that is occurring, and patients are aware of what's going on. There's a lot of anxiety, there's a lot of panic, your adrenaline's rushing."
Despite her health battle, Dion has vowed to return to the stage and perform for her fans again.
