Under Our Skin

It’s not often that I see a film that keeps me thinking about it much beyond the next day. I can name a couple – “State of Play”, “Derailed” – that I’ve recently seen that remained on my mind for the following week. But I can’t think of any that have left me thinking for more than a month after I saw it – except for “Under Our Skin”.

I’ve been meaning to write for weeks about this eye-opening documentary about Lyme disease. My friend Becky invited me to the film’s theatrical premiere at the International Film Center in Manhattan on June 19th. I have thought about it almost every day since.

When I was a child, I remember my mom panicking after my brother’s friend Scott was bitten by a tick at a birthday party hosted at our home. Now I understand why. (He was not infected with Lyme.)

I had heard of Lyme disease, but like many people I believed that if it was caught early it was easily treated. “Under Our Skin” follows the difficult daily life of sufferers of chronic Lyme disease, introducing the viewer to the debilitating effects of this disease and the frustration patients face trying to find proper treatment.

The "star" of the film is a patient named Mandy. She (as well as the filmmaker, Andy Abrahams Wilson) was present at the Manhattan screening, looking like a glamorous Hollywood actress. This contrast to her appearance in the film as a severely ill and bedridden patient contributes to why Lyme is such a controversial disease. She explains the difficulty in diagnosing her disease, because some doctors believed her symptoms were all in her head. “You’re a pretty girl. You’re just not getting enough attention,” they would say.

But proper diagnosis is just the beginning of a painful road to relief. Mandy finds a doctor who uses an aggressive treatment with high levels of intravenous antibiotics. He explains to her that she will get worse before she will get better. She asks if he means “Emergency room-worse” and he says yes. Mandy’s husband does not like the idea of filming her “episodes” which include seizures, but he agrees. Not surprisingly, this footage is the most frightening to watch.

The most shocking element in the film, however, is that treating Lyme disease is controversial. The film documents how some of the most successful Lyme doctors have had to stand trial defending their unorthodox practice of using intravenous antibiotics to treat a disease (chronic Lyme) that other doctors deny even exists. Some lose their licenses, and others must close their practices. This seems motivated by health insurance companies that find these doctors’ prescribed treatments too costly.

I don’t want to pretend to be an authority on Lyme disease, because this is my first look at the severity of the disease and the struggle of its patients to lead normal lives. Since I was so touched by the film, I thought I could use my blog to spread awareness of the disease and encourage you to watch the film. Becky, who invited me to the screening, has a cousin with chronic Lyme. She is around our age, but has been unable to complete college because of her disease. “Under Our Skin” has launched a screening tour across the US.

http://www.underourskin.com/

http://www.turnthecorner.org/