It’s funny, but I now find an odd concoction of Lyme-ridden pop stars relevant to my life. Some of them got sick when I did. Some have been sick for years. Their experiences are eerily familiar to me.

I am always pissed they don’t dish on their EXACT treatments. But it is helpful for me to hear them talk about what their bodies are (or were) capable of at different points in time. And how they get by now.

KATHLEEN HANNA on a rebound in Spain.(GIF from Pitchfork.com)

She got diagnosed about a year before me. I had read she cancelled a tour a year or so ago. Imagine how I felt one day, when I wanted to peek at her blog to see how she was doing, and BOOM! There she is in video cartwheeling into a split on stage in Spain !

She has her ups and downs, but I often wonder if I will get to have any more “ups.” The rock-n-roll acrobatics were certainly inspiring, even if she can’t do that every week.

There is an excellent documentary on her which also covers the Lyme experience that is still part of her daily life — The Punk Singer. It is such a real example of how Lyme can take a dynamo’s life and turn it upside down.

 

JOHN LURIE painting Wolf by day. Wolf by night, watercolor on paper, 20″x14″, 2015

Lurie had to stop his incredibly complicated music, and now he paints. I myself have issues with music these days, I had been dabbling in recording again around the time I got sick. Now arranging recordings is just confusing. I sometimes have a hard time even listening to music. This makes me sad, but am still very comfortable with visual art.

This article  touches on John, his illness, and his current and former art, which are cool.

DEBBIE GIBSON‘s gaunt Lyme look worried fans and inspired critics to attack.

We entered into Lyme with the exact same symptoms. Poor thing had the whole  Gee, I can’t seem to digest meat.

She got lost driving. I got lost walking.

And the all too familiar — not having kids, and wondering if you would have tried if you never had Lyme.

Today she is looking healthy, and back to creative projects, but can’t keep the pace of her pre-lyme days. She touched me a bit when she recalled telling a doctor, “I am in here somewhere.” That is exactly how it feels.