CO-CURE: NOT: Laura Hillenbrand interview (New Yorker)

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Sun, 18 Oct 2009 03:08:40 +0100

Tom Kindlon <_tomkindlon_

(tomkindlon) >

NOT: Laura Hillenbrand interview (New Yorker)

 

(Although this says " back issues " , this is a recent interview)

 

_http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/backissues/2009/10/back-issues-laura-

h_

(http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/backissues/2009/10/back-issues-laura-hill\

enbrand.html) illenbrand.html

 

 

Timely notes from The New Yorker's archive.

 

October 15, 2009

 

Back Issues: Laura Hillenbrand

 

As reported in the Times

_http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/health/13fatigue.html?_r=2 & 8dpc= & pagewant

e_

(http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/health/13fatigue.html?_r=2 & 8dpc= & pagewanted=a\

ll) d=all and elsewhere, the journal Science this week published a

study linking chronic fatigue syndrome to a possibly contagious retrovirus

that has also been implicated in an aggressive form of prostate cancer.

(The Science study

_http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/1179052_

(http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/1179052) is available only to

the journal's

rs.)

 

C.F.S. is debilitating to those who suffer it, but while research has

identified a host of physical abnormalities in patients, the cause of the

disease has proved elusive. In 2003, Laura Hillenbrand wrote about her

experience of C.F.S. in The New Yorker. Her essay, " A Sudden Illness, "

_http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/07/07/030707fa_fact_hillenbrand_

(http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/07/07/030707fa_fact_hillenbrand) recalls

the earliest

manifestations of the disease while she was a student at Kenyon College and

the long process of receiving an accurate diagnosis. In the piece,

Hillenbrand also describes the demands of writing her book, " Seabiscuit, " while

suffering from C.F.S.

 

Hillenbrand lives in Washington, D.C., and is currently completing work on

her second book. She kindly agreed to a brief telephone interview earlier

this afternoon.

 

 

Q:

How has the C.F.S. been since the publication of your essay in The New

Yorker in 2003?

 

A:

The C.F.S. is far worse, unfortunately. I had a catastrophic relapse in

2007 that sent me back to square one. It has been two years since then and I

have only been able to leave my house twice. I've only recently begun

getting down my staircase every day. It's the way the disease works. Everybody

gets relapses. Mine tend to be really bad.

 

 

Q:

How does the news about the Science study make you feel, and do you have a

sense of how it has been received in the C.F.S. community?

 

A:

The C.F.S. community is all abuzz. I've never seen people this excited.

And it is for good reason. As for myself, I am guardedly optimistic. I've

been around this block before. The findings are very preliminary and they do

need to be replicated. It needs to be demonstrated that this virus is a cause

and not a bystander. But, with that said, the findings are stunning. All

of us with C.F.S. have long felt that a virus is involved. The symptoms are

so viral. You get fevers and chills and aching, a very sore throat, huge

lymph nodes, and all the things you would get with flu, times ten, and they

never go away.

 

The researchers have said that in a follow-up study, ninety-eight per cent

of some three hundred C.F.S. patients tested positive for this new virus.

If replicated, that's a stunning finding, a potential blockbuster for

patients. It could be, finally, the thing that makes treatment and, eventually,

a cure, possible. But you have to be circumspect with any medical study,

and this is very preliminary. We'll all be waiting eagerly for the results of

follow-up research.

 

 

Q:

What are you working on now?

 

A:

I'm just finishing my second book, a biography of the 1936 Olympic runner

Louis Zamperini, who became a bombardier in the Second World War. He

crashed in the Pacific and floated on a raft for forty-seven days across two

thousand miles before being captured by the Japanese. I've been working on that

since I finished " Seabiscuit. "

 

 

Q:

Has it been easier or harder to work on this book than on " Seabiscuit " ?

 

A:

It has been much more difficult than the first book, which is

disappointing because " Seabiscuit " was very hard. It's been tremendously

difficult to

find the strength to write, and a big part of this relapse has been a return

of vertigo. Right now I'm doing the citations and the hardest thing to do

while suffering from vertigo is to look at the page numbers and things like

that. The text of the book is just about finished and I'm just annotating

now. I will finish it!

 

 

Q:

Do you have a title and publication date for the book yet?

 

A:

The book is tentatively titled " Unbroken " and will be published by Random

House next year.

 

 

 

Laura Hillenbrand; Seabiscuit; chronic fatigue syndrome; science

 

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