Tuesday, August 22, 2006

I Remember Me

Last night I watched the documentary I Remember Me. It mixes personal and political stories in the history of ME - or CFS, as it is called State side. (I can barely even bring myself to use that feeble and futile term, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. It's like describing the Titanic as a paper boat). The film was powerful and sometimes tragic. Thirteen million dollars earmarked for CFS research was diverted into other illnesses because ours was not deemed serious enough. One researcher physician (Dr Nancy Klimas) said her HIV clinics were more uplifting than her CFS clinics - as at least HIV was respected and there were good treatments available. I bought the film from Amazon here, although UK readers please note it is a region 1 DVD and may not play on UK machines (I switched settings on my laptop to watch it). The only consolation from watching the film is that researchers believe that the truth will finally out and the pieces of the jigsaw are slowly coming together.
-C

3 comments:

Sue Jackson said...

My husband and I watched "I Remember Me" several years ago, shortly after I was first diagnosed. It is a very powerful, emotional film. We both sobbed during the part about the teenaged boy graduating from high school. I think that watching the documentary was probably a turning point for my mother, to finally understand that my illness was serious and debilitating.

Sue

Heather Anastasiu said...

Hi there - I found your blog from your MySpace page. I've had CFS for 5 years now and am pretty debilitated by it.

I saw this movie too, and had mixed feelings about it. While I was glad that someone had made a documentary about this crap-ass illness, I thought she spent a long time trying to track down the 'cause' of the illness - which certainly is something I'm interested in. But I was hoping it would be more a tool to share with those who didn't understand CFS - I was hoping she would just more show what day to day life is like in many different people with CFS's lives. She seemed to spend a long time in that one town (which may or may not have been related to CFS). But I think the film did show how devastating CFS can be.

Have you seen the latest research from the CDC which discovered a possible genetic predisposition to CFS/ME? I'm not too crazy about following all the research anymore, but I thought this was worthwhile information. The theory goes that we are genetically predisposed to have CFS, then when some stressful event in our lives, or long-term build up of stress, or even normal day to day stress - it can trigger it. I can give you the link to some articles about it if you are interested. I like anything that helps me show the validity of this illness to others, you know?

I agree with you about the name - Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - how dare they name it something so commonplace sounding, when it has so hugely altered every aspect of our lives?

greenwords said...

I'll have to get hold of this. Not from American Amazon though, they charge a fortune to post stuff to Australia.

Completely agree with you about the 'CFS' term. Unfortunately it's commonly used here.