Review: I Remember Me (documentary)

I tried to watch this back in the summer when I was in really bad shape both mentally and physically. I had to turn it off after 30 minutes because it so impacted me. The documentary is about CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome). I didn’t expect it to sound so much like what I’d been going through. It’s been 6 months since I first tried to watch it and finally I’ve decided to give it another try.

Kim Snyder began the search that she documents in this movie after being diagnosed with CFS. For her it started with feeling like she had the flu and being completely drained. I identified with this completely. She talked about being bed-ridden for 9 months, where she could barely move, yet she wasn’t sleeping either. On top of that she felt like her whole body had been plugged into a light socket. This last bit is exactly how I describe the nerve pain of Fibro. She describes the not being able to think, the lack of sleep and the general feeling that she was dying “rotting from the inside out”. Her descriptions are why so often CFS and Fibro are lumped together; because they are so similar.

She describes how it feels completely viral, how you just know it’s something you “caught”, that it didn’t happen with no cause or reason.

One comment that really caught my ear was one sufferer comment on how after you’ve been sick for so long with no real diagnosis and people telling you it’s not real, you start to believe it. Been there.

Michelle Akers (a female soccer player) talks about grieving over her own “death” and rewriting her script.

This documentary goes beyond just the story of the Nevada town that is thought to be the start of CFS, to a town in FL 45 years ago where an outbreak of something that sounds the same occurred.

There is some hope in this documentary, but overall it’s just the knowledge that we aren’t alone. The saddest bit about this entire video is the text at the end about how it was finally admitted at the CDC had diverted over $13 Million intended for use into CFS research to other research. Just think how much further we might be to finding an answer. I realize $13 Million isn’t really much in the world of medical research but it would be $13 Million further than we are now.

In addition to the Amazon links listed, I watched the documentary on Netflix Instant streaming (free with my subscription).