A Weighty Question

[Guest guest]

I finally gave in and bought a DVD copy of " Under Our Skin. " And I'm

really glad I did. It's a beautifully well-told story, and I'm

planning to pack it along for family Christmas, to show interested

parties exactly what's up with me.

I especially liked Jordan's story. I grew up (and probably got Lyme)

in that same stretch of the Sierra. Watching him hike the high peaks

made me achingly homesick -- not that I could hike them in my current

condition anyway. The prospect of never being able to return to the

high country again is one of the hardest pieces of grieving around

this illness. I can only imagine how he felt.

There was one thing about the film that got me, though. Every one of

the profiled patients was excruciatingly thin -- anorexic, almost. And

I can't believe I'm not the only one of us (or am I?) who's had the

opposite reaction to this disease: I'm up nearly 60 pounds over the

past 15 years, mostly because the pain and exhaustion from this

disease made me so sedentary. I work out, I wipe out.

I'm concerned that people will see this film and think that I can't

possibly have Lyme, because I don't show the same kind of wasting. I

know moviemakers really prefer to put skinny people on camera; but as

well-chosen as the featured Lymies were, it would have been a real

service to show at least one who was gaining, not losing, weight due

to the disease.

Thoughts?

BTW, the doctor in Seattle is not the one I'm seeing.

Sara