13 years Lyme & Co.; Small Fiber Neuropathy; Myasthenia Gravis, Adrenal Insufficiency. On chemo for 2 1/2 years as experimental treatment for MG. Posts: 4480 | From Northeastern Connecticut | Registered: Jun 2005
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Set in late-70s Long Island, Lymelife follows two families who crumble when tangled relationships, real estate problems and Lyme disease converge in the heart of suburbia.
Fifteen-year-old Scott Bartlett is a gentle boy, radically different from his blustery father Mickey and tightly wired mother Brenda.
An outbreak of Lyme disease, as well as the accompanying paranoia, hits their suburban community hard.
When the Bartletts' neighbour Charlie Bragg is diagnosed with the illness, Brenda calms her fears by duct-taping Scott's cuffs shut.
Despite the onset of this mysterious ailment, the two families are quite busy.
Since Charlie is unable to work, his wife Melissa must keep the income flowing herself.
She is hired by Mickey, who is the developer of an enormous subdivision, and though this gesture is a friendly favour, it is also patently motivated by lust.
Mickey's history of philandering is one of the many things upsetting his wife Brenda, who yearns for the comfort of their old neighbourhood in Queens.
And growing up amid this marital cocktail is Scott, who has been in love with the Braggs' daughter Adrianna for all of his young life. The news both good and bad is that she is starting to return his interest.
Things really heat up when Jimmy, Scott's older brother, comes home on leave from the army.
Jimmy shares many of his father's personality traits, and his confrontations with Mickey trigger events that permanently alter both families.
Page last updated by TheSilverRaider, 4 months ago
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posted
Here's what the co-writer/director had to say about Lyme disease in an interview:
"Q: You mentioned at the Q&A after the screening today you knew someone that had Lyme disease and how it degenerated. Could you say who that was?"
"Derick: That was a person during our childhood that was a friend of the family. He was misdiagnosed with Lyme disease, and they were giving him the wrong medicine. It just deteriorated to the point where he was never himself, and he is still not himself. I've done a lot of research about Lyme disease while writing the script and beforehand. If you don't catch it right away, and if you don't actually treat it with the correct medication - which is heavy doses of penicillin - it erodes your brain. Aside from the aches, arthritis that it gives you, the rashes and things like that, it actually acts much like syphilis does where your brain just starts to erode."
posted
I'm not sure what to expect from the film but I'd cut the director a little slack on this comment, he probably just meant antibiotics. It was a film festival, he's getting asked all sorts of questions. It's not like this is a Lyme documentary.
Meanwhile understanding it can hit the brain like syphilis would be new to popular culture I think.
Posts: 621 | From US | Registered: Jun 2006
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