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Life & Times Transcript
11/30/06 Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times -- Her skin feels like it's crawling and she has open sores. Why don't doctors believe she's sick? Gail Anderson>> And I'm not delusional or paranoid and I know there is because it itches and it hurts. It hurts so bad. Dr. David Sawcer>> And you do nothing but keep scratching the bumps. Whether you do or you don't have an infestation, you do or you don't have a symptom, it will just keep going all by itself. Val Zavala>> And then, he was at the peak of his career when everything changed. How did he turn an AIDS diagnosis into a message of hope? It's all straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times. Announcer>> Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. Val Zavala>> It's a medical mystery that has sparked an intense controversy among doctors, researchers and patients. It's called Morgellon's Disease and the symptoms are not pretty. Patients report skin lesions that won't heal along with biting and stinging sensations. But many of the patients also suffer from mental disorders and that has caused many doctors to believe that Morgellon's is all in their heads. Sam Louie takes a closer look at this medical mystery. A word of warning. The following story contains some graphic images. Sam Louie>> What is it? Gail Anderson>> This is part of a fiber. Sam Louie>> It's a life of constant scrutiny, suffering and confusion. Gail Anderson of Orange County is among more than six thousand people nationwide purportedly suffering from a controversial health condition known as Morgellon's. The symptoms vary, everything from fibers growing out of their bodies -- Gail Anderson>> I have blue fibers. If you look closely at these, there are blue fibers right around here. Sam Louie>> -- to mashed-up fingernails -- Gail Anderson>> There have been some red fibers coming from each finger from the cuticle on in and then splitting the nail open at the bottom. Sam Louie>> -- to a crawling sensation caused by an internal parasite. Gail Anderson>> This is my belly button. It used to be an innie and, as you can see, it's protruding out. It's just growing and growing. Sam Louie>> Doctors consider this a herniated navel, but Gail believes this, along with all of her other symptoms, point to the mysterious Morgellon's Disease. Gail Anderson>> It hurts. I don't know what it is, but I know it has something to do with Morgellon's. It has to. Sam Louie>> Gail believes it all started six years ago when thick patches of hair began growing on her arms and back. Gail Anderson>> It was almost like being a Sasquatch. I felt absolutely like I was a freak. I was becoming a freak. I didn't know what was going on with me. Sam Louie>> Lesions and sores are other common physical symptoms. For Gail, the lesions on her face made life a living hell. Gail Anderson>> My whole left side of my face has started with two red dots, red, red, red, red, until they opened up into these blotchy, huge, open wounds. I was at a point that I was afraid to stand in line at a grocery store. I didn't want to go out in public. I became a recluse. I thought I was going to infect everybody. I didn't know if it was contagious, if it was infectious. Sam Louie>> Although Gail swears she has Morgellon's, others are skeptical. In fact, there's a major debate between patients and doctors on whether Morgellon's is a physical affliction or a psychological disorder. Dr. David Sawcer is among those who believe it's psychosomatic. Dr. David Sawcer>> So if you think of all of the people who might come to see me with those cluster symptoms, pretty much everyone has a psychological component. Sam Louie>> Sawcer is an Assistant Professor of Dermatology at USC. He believes this new disease is actually an age-old problem. Dr. David Sawcer>> I don't actually think this is a disease as much as a mystery. The idea of this cluster of symptoms associated with a particular problem is actually quite an old and well-documented one. Sam Louie>> The reason for the recent upsurge? The internet. It's become an online gathering place for victims to share their stories. Dr. David Sawcer>> These people with the problem have gained a voice. They've gained a voice, they've gained attention and, on the whole, that's on the internet that they've found a way to vent their feelings about this association amongst people with a similar situation to bear. Sam Louie>> Sawcer doesn't call the condition Morgellon's. He and many others call it delusional parasitosis. In plain english, it's a form of psychosis where sufferers have delusions that they're infested with parasites. Gail Anderson>> And I'm not delusional or paranoid. I know there is because it itches and it hurts. It hurts so bad. Sam Louie>> Back in Orange County, Gail Anderson is all too familiar with how the naysayers explain her symptoms. Gail Anderson>> They're created in your mind like the self-mutilation type of theory. You know, these are only appearing because you want them to or, you know, you're making this up or we don't know what you do at night. You probably crawl around on the floor. I've known my body ever since I was born and they just cannot tell me that it's any other way than what it is, and what it is is Morgellon's. Sam Louie>> Doctors who believed her condition was psychological prescribed antidepressants and antipsychotic medications. Gail has been taking them for the past year, but says they have little effect on her physical ailments. Gail, how do you feel when the medical community rejects Morgellon's? Gail Anderson>> Betrayed, humiliated. I walked around that hospital thinking, you know, with a stigma. Okay, in my head, like "Oh, here comes that. . . Here she comes. Where's the security guard?" I felt that it was that bad. Sam Louie>> So how do you explain all the strange physical symptoms found on these bodies? Dr. David Sawcer>> That condition has a name. It's called nodular prurigo and it means it's bumps. The bumps are on the cheeks and you scratch them and that makes the bumps, so you've got yourself a nice little circle which self-perpetuates. You do nothing but keep scratching those bumps. Whether you do or you don't have an infestation, if you do or you don't have a symptom, it will just keep going all by itself. Sam Louie>> And how will this controversy be resolved? Dr. Jonathan Fielding is the Director of Public Health for Los Angeles County. Dr. Jonathan Fielding>> There's no evidence that I've seen in the limited literature that's available that it's a contagious disease. You don't have outbreaks of everybody in the school classroom or everybody in the office or everybody in the family. We don't have the signs that would lead you to suspect this is a contagious disease. Sam Louie>> But the debate itself is enough of a concern that the Centers for Disease Control is stepping in. Dr. Jonathan Fielding>> Whenever you have a group of people that are really having severe symptoms that are affecting their lives, it's important to try and understand what this is. Is it a single disease? Is it a group of diseases? Is it simply a set of symptoms of a variety of diseases? We really don't know the answer to that. So I think anytime there's a problem that we can better understand, we want to do that. Sam Louie>> Fielding says the CDC will bring in a host of specialists to Los Angeles sometime next year to fully investigate Morgellon's. Los Angeles was selected because southern California has a large number of people claiming to have Morgellon's. Dr. Jonathan Fielding>> So they have pathologists on the team, infectious disease experts, mental health professionals, environmental health experts, anesthetists, other physicians, so they're really taking a very comprehensive view and I think that's very heartening because that's really what needs to be done here to better understand it. Sam Louie>> For Gail Anderson, her feeling of betrayal has now turned to vindication, knowing the CDC will be doing a full investigation. Gail Anderson>> Oh, it's absolutely fantastic because somebody that important, part of the government, I mean, obviously they realize that there is something really going on here. Sam Louie>> Gail would like to get better so she can live a more normal life and, at the very least, a life where she doesn't feel like an outcast and where her plight is taken seriously. I'm Sam Louie for Life and Times. Announcer>> Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, plus transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org, scroll down the page and click on "Life and Times". Val Zavala>> This year, nearly three million people worldwide will die of AIDS. That's the highest number yet in any year. And another forty million are living with the virus. But those numbers don't tell the story of AIDS like one individual can. In this case, Dalee Henderson, a successful and popular Hollywood hairdresser who lived with the virus for eighteen years. Dalee Henderson>> "It's difficult, not spiritually, but sometimes it's been hard to be alone." Val Zavala>> Now a documentary about Dalee Henderson has been released. It's called "White Shadows". It was a labor of love by the crew and the director. I spoke with its director, Mialyn Hanna. How did you meet him? Mialyn Hanna>> You know, I met him actually walking down on a walker down on his driveway to a meeting, to a gathering around like a special teacher who's also an AIDS activist. He just walked towards me on his walker and I just fell in love with him immediately. I felt like I'd known him forever. Val Zavala>> Dalee Henderson grew up in a big conservative family in the south. His sister discovered he was gay and revealed it to the entire family during a Thanksgiving dinner. Dalee Henderson>> "Announced to my family that I was a homosexual. A fagot is how she put it. My dad told me to get up from the table, that he did not wish to eat with me nor spend another night with me in his house and that he really didn't care what happened to me, but that I was no longer his son." Mialyn Hanna>> Eventually, his sister came back from California and told him to come to California. She said, you know, that's the place for you to go. So he came and he started beauty school and very quickly became known as being a genius hair stylist as well, actually. So eventually, he was doing the hair of Diana Ross, of Stevie Wonder, of Denzel Washington, Pauletta Washington, of the whole array of celebrities. In 1986, he was working at his hair salon and he got a call from the Oprah Show. Dalee Henderson>> "I picked the phone up and I said hello. They said, "Yes, this is so and so from the Oprah Winfrey Show" and I said, "You know what? Stop playing with me" and hung up the phone. Then they called back, the front desk, and said, "No, Dalee, this is the Oprah Winfrey Show on the phone" and I said, "You know what? I'm tired of this." I picked up the phone and said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah" and hung up the phone again. They called back and they said, "Listen, we really are from the Oprah Winfrey Show" and I said, "Oh, yeah, right." So I hung up again. About the fourth time the phone rang, the voice on the end of the phone, I said "Yes?" The voice said, "This is Oprah. This is not the Oprah Winfrey Show. This is Oprah and don't hang up this phone." I said, "Oh, okay." She said, "I hear that your God and that you do all this hair." Oprah Winfrey>> "Our next guest has done Diana Ross and Billy Dee Williams and everybody who's black and famous except me (laughter). I'm only kidding. Please welcome Dalee Henderson to the show. Always welcome." Mialyn Hanna>> There was a time when he felt really strange in his body. What he said, again, is that he felt this earthquake in his body and all these people around him died, so he felt that it was time for him to get this AIDS test, even though he was sure he wasn't going to get AIDS ever. Dalee Henderson>> "Me and my arrogance, thinking in my heart that I'm such a good person. I'm God's child and such a happy person that this cannot and will not happen to me. Then the doctor came in and said, "Well, Dalee, what are we going to do with you?" I said, "Well, let me go home." He said, "Well, you have the virus." Mialyn Hanna>> At the time when he got AIDS, the only drug that was there was ADT. Doctors didn't know about ADT, how much to give them. It just came from the big companies and they just gave them ADT. Pretty shortly thereafter, they feel worse and die actually. So at the time when he was diagnosed with AIDS, he decided not to take the drugs for that reason. Dr. Dale Propukek>> "You know, it was very challenging to me because, when I first met him, my first response was, well, get on the medications, idiot. You know, like hello, you know. I mean, I listened to him. I began to understand that that just was not what was right for him. Dalee Henderson>> "And he actually sat me down and sat down with me and asked me what did I want to do? No doctor had ever asked me that before. He asked me how I wanted to do this and I told him that I didn't want to take so many drugs. To be honest with you, I want to take as few drugs as possible and get the most out of it. I want you to know that I want my spirit to be recognized. I want my desire to live, my connection, my spirit, my connection with God to be recognized and I want it to be recognized that I am not coming here looking for a miracle. The miracle is already -- I am the miracle." Mialyn Hanna>> You know, he would get up and, if I wasn't there, he would call me up or he would call his friends up and just tell them, "My God, I just heard these birds. They were just amazing, like a tabernacle choir. Did you hear them? I just want to tell you life's incredible, wonderful. Enjoy it." I can't do it like he does. Val Zavala>> In the fall of 2005 after living with AIDS for eighteen years, Dalee Henderson died. Mialyn Hanna>> I think the biggest part for the gay community is to be the inspiration of being who you are, no matter what. Be proud of who you are and enjoy all of life. If you're gay, you're gay. If you're straight, if you have a disease, don't become the disease. Be the person that you are and enjoy life. Dalee Henderson>> "I literally feel -- on my skin, I feel like bubbles popping. You know. like bubbles of light popping against my skin. For me, those are angels kissing me." Val Zavala>> "White Shadows" will be screened this Sunday at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood as part of World AIDS Day. For further details, you can go to their website which is whiteshadowsthefilm.com. Announcer>> To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us by mail at this address: Life and Times 4401 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, California 90027 You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org. Larry Mantle>> Welcome to FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Larry Mantle of 89.3 KPCC. Our first film this week just in time for the holiday season is "The Nativity Story". It stars Keisha Castle-Hughes as Mary and Oscar Isaac as Joseph and the film is directed by Catherine Hardwicke. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> I'm joined this week by critics Henry Sheehan of henrysheehan.com and Andy Klein, the film editor for City Beat. Well, Andy, what did you think of "The Nativity Story"? Andy Klein>> Well, this is really truth in advertising, Larry. They say it's a nativity story and it is a nativity story, which I was actually surprised by. Catherine Hardwicke, the director, is best known for "13" and "Lords of Dogtown" which are much more hard-edged, modern, hip kinds of films. I thought maybe she was going to do a Sophia Coppola thing and take the nativity and sort of bring a modern perspective, but she really didn't very much. I mean, this is straightforward. It almost could have been a fifties biblical epic with the exception that Keisha Castle-Hughes who plays the lead is darker-skinned. You know, this is not all lily white North African. There's a little bit of that perspective there, but basically, it's very dry straight through, you know, step, step, step, all the elements. The only modern thing I saw at all was that the Three Wise Men are kind of played like Gaspar, Melchior and Curly. I mean, there's a comic relief thing, but that was the only difference. Larry Mantle>> Henry, what did you think? Henry Sheehan>> Well, I actually thought that the Three Wise Men don't go the Three Kings route. They're the Three Magi, and I thought they were actually the most interesting part of the movie because they had the most going on, I thought, dramatically and intellectually. I mean, they were scientists, they were astronomers and they're trying to reconcile biblical knowledge with scientific knowledge. I thought that was interesting and, yeah, they were funny. This is really a big project of the screenwriter, Mike Rich, who did a lot of research into the times and has tried to put some sociological and psychological additions into the traditional story. This film could have been very good. It was shot in Italy. It had Italian production designers and costumers. I think this movie was entirely wrecked by Catherine Hardwicke who has shot it so badly with such the wrong lenses, with such the wrong setups. The whole movie just falls apart, thanks to her. Larry Mantle>> Our second film this week, "Candy", is not to be confused with an earlier film. It was kind of a sex-applied title. This is anything but a romp. It tells the story of two junkies' downward spiral. It stars Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> Well, Henry, what did you think of "Candy"? Henry Sheehan>> This is a movie about two junkies that try to be brave about it the way a great film called "The Panic in Needle Park" was in that the life of a junkie is not interesting. There's a lot of waiting. Getting high is not interesting. Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish play a couple of Australian young people who are lovers and who get involved in junk. The film kind of shows their spiral downward over several months. Unfortunately, we know where they're going (laughter) the whole time. They're spiraling downward. There's nothing inherently dramatic about what they're doing, unfortunately. The movie just failed. Larry Mantle>> "10 Items or Less" stars Morgan Freeman and Paz Vega in the story of a successful actor who decides he wants to do some research into what the life of a suburban grocer is like. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> "10 Items or Less", Andy? Andy Klein>> Yeah, this is a very sweet film. It's incredibly modest in scope. Morgan Freeman plays an actor who seems to be sort of Morgan Freeman. He keeps running into people who say, "Oh, you were in that movie with Ashley Judd" (laughter). Larry Mantle>> (Laughter) He's funny. Andy Klein>> He's thinking of taking a new part as the manager of a supermarket, so he goes to a small supermarket in the middle of nowhere to do research and he immediately is sort of smitten by -- in some ways, it's not clear the nature of that smittenness -- Paz Vega who's the checkout girl at the "ten items or less" counter. He basically pushes himself into her life that afternoon and the whole film takes place over the course of the afternoon as she's trying to get it together for a better job interview. It's very thin. It's about seventy minutes long, not counting the closing credits, but very charming. Morgan Freeman seems to be having the time of his life and it's just fun to watch him. Paz Vega's accent actually created problems for me. I was having a good deal of missing lines and such. Larry Mantle>> And our final film this week is Alan Bennett's adaptation of his award-winning play, "The History Boys". Just like with the stage version, it's directed by Nicholas Hytner. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> "The History Boys", Henry? Henry Sheehan>> This is a wonderful movie. Nicholas Hytner is transferring Alan Bennett's play, which was a hit in London and New York, to the screen. I don't think he does a particular good job in directing, but Alan Bennett's dialogue is just stunning in this story of a traditional teacher perfectly played by Richard Griffiths in a high school teaching an elite group of boys about the world and about literature and about movies all at the same time. The verbal dexterity between him and his kids is amazing. He comes in opposition to a kind of cynical teacher brought in to get these kids into Cambridge and Oxford, you know, manipulating scholarships just to advance one's self. It's just a wonderful movie. Just sit there and let this brilliant, witty talk flow over you. Larry Mantle>> What did you think, Andy? Andy Klein>> I really liked it. I'm a little less enthused than Henry partly because it took me a while to get used to the rhythm of that dialogue. It's the kind of artificial rhythm that works very well on the stage and I think is always a little awkward on the big screen, which is kind of a more realistic medium. Having said that, it is tremendously amusing and touching. It's got a little bit of a sub-plot that is kind of distasteful in some weird way, but basically it's one of the better films of the last couple of months absolutely. Larry Mantle>> Well, thanks for joining us for another FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Larry Mantle of 89.3 KPCC joined by critics Andy Klein, the film editor for City Beat, and Henry Sheehan of henrysheehan.com. Please join us again next week for the next FilmWeek on Life and Times. Val Zavala>> KPCC radio broadcasts the hour version of FilmWeek Friday mornings at eleven. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time. Announcer>> Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. Sponsored in part by:  | |
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