Elaina Zajac has had Lyme disease since she was a kid. But it took years and years to trace her illness back to her childhood days on the Connecticut shore line — not far from tick ground zero, Old Lyme. Elaina has late-stage neurological Lyme disease. Her husband and kids have watched her suffer from nasty and debilitating flares over the years. Then, Elaina's husband, Rob, and their two children started having unexplained symptoms. Turns out, the whole family has Lyme. Not to the extent that Elaina has it, but it's nonetheless painful and exhausting when their disease flares as well.
There's a saying within the Lyme community — 'you don't get it until you GET it' — and now that the whole family has Lyme, boy do they all *get* what it means to suffer through misdiagnosis, wrong meds, high medical bills, refusal to pay by insurance companies — not to mention, the heartache of looking at your loved ones in pain.
A new documentary, The Monster Inside Me, seeks to bring hope to the many who are suffering along with those who care for and love them. Christine and Salt chatted with Elaina about the film which starts streaming May 20th on the films' website. You can listen to the full interview below, and scroll down for a journalistic piece Christine Lee did on the Zajac family back in 2019.