Someone new to our local support group asked me a question about UOS. "How did the lady die who is at the end of the movie standing under a tree? She didn't seem too bad. Was it from lyme?"
I don't know the answer. It's been a while since I saw the movie myself and I really don't remember.
I think it scared this person, new to this disease.
Does anyone know the answer and will you please share it with me?
Posted by Keebler (Member # 12673) on :
- "She didn't seem too bad." Is what is said about most lyme patients, even when at their worst.
I had a couple photos taken on days when I had a 102 degree fever and thought I should have gone to the ER but knew they did not know what to do with me.
I smiled, I summoned up all my good nature and - I looked good. The camera sees the beauty or spark that can shine though - and often not the way a person feels.
While at the time of the first filming, she may have been better, lyme can turn sharply.
Sadly, yes, she died from tick-borne disease complications. Many have. Many.
[I substitute "alert" for "scare"]
It should alert that person. It alerts me. But I know that it could happen to me, too. Lyme can be fatal and it's to everyone's detriment to try to slide that under the rug.
While it scares me, it also fuels me to do all I can for myself, find the best help I can afford and when that is not possible just know that I can only do the best I can do with what I have.
Lyme is very serious. The only way to give it, and ourselves, the respect deserved is to face the facts full on - and do the best we can.
I had put off for a year watching my DVD of "Under Our Skin" because I was afraid it would send me into a depression. I have no way to get medical care and can barely afford supplements. I did not want to feel helpless.
But, the film did not do that for me.
It inspired me. It validates the severity and frailty. It gave me hope that even if I can't do what others who succeeded did, there are many things that I can do to help myself.
Perhaps because I has a very short career in the media (journalism can be an honorable profession) before I became ill - and I love documentaries - I could really appreciate the professional qualities of the film.
I totally saw myself in many of the interviews. That validation is something I've never experienced in any other way this whole time.
Even if I don't make it, that film changed forever how I feel about myself having this "lyme complex" - I'm glad they had the courage to make that film.
I just wish more PBS stations would have had the courage to air it last summer when it was free for unlimited broadcasts to each PBS station.
(The IDSA pressured them and most of the crumbled. It either did not air or aired only once at 3 a.m. in many major markets.)
Everyone should see this film. Everyone. It can change a life in unexpected ways - good ways. -
Posted by Keebler (Member # 12673) on :
- To honor those whose lives have been cut short by tick-borne disease: --------------------------------
UDATES on some (not all) of those featured in the film. But it's hard to see when their latest entries were posted.
The woman you refer to is not on the website but did have a short memorial note in the added DVD footage. -
Posted by lymenow (Member # 36175) on :
i only remember seeing 2 death certificates the daughter of the woman (heart attack) and the blonde womans husbad (ALS). both certificates also said lyme....the cause of both i'm sure.
Posted by Robin123 (Member # 9197) on :
Leslie came to the LDA/ILADS conference here in 2008 - she actively worked during it, like collecting comment cards from people, including me.
I recall that she died in her sleep two weeks later.
I think it's really neat that she wanted to come and contribute even though she was pretty sick. I think of her as a person who lived what she wanted to do, and I mourn her passing.