Hilfiger Daughter's Lyme Disease Crisis - MetroFocus PBS 12-05-2016
- 6 years ago
Ally Hilfiger’s childhood was not easy despite being the daughter of renowned fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger. Her arduous health ordeal began at the age of seven when she was bitten by a tick.
In her new book Bite Me: How Lyme Disease Stole My Childhood, Made me Crazy, and Almost Killed Me, Hilfiger opens up about her personal battle with Lyme disease, and shares how she hopes to help others. https://www.amazon.com/Bite-Me-Disease-Childhood-Almost/dp/1455567051
Tommy Hilfiger's daughter reveals her 19-year fight against Lyme disease: Fashion heiress, 30, says condition took over 'every single cell in her body and her brain'
Ally Hilfiger suffered with the debilitating illness for 14 years undiagnosed
Chronic fatigue and body pain eventually discovered as Lyme disease
Touching body felt like 'being hit by baseball bat' and had to walk with stick
The daughter of US fashion kingpin Tommy Hilfiger says Lyme disease left her living 'like an 80-year-old woman' after doctors failed to discover she had the debilitating illness for 14 years.
Ally Hilfiger is understood to have contracted the disease, which is carried and spread by ticks, when she was seven-years-old.
However, she claims she wasn't diagnosed properly until she was 21, leaving her young body ravaged by the condition.
Speaking to the Daily Mail's Sebastian Shakespeare, Ally said: 'I couldn't put lotion on my legs because it felt as if I was being beaten with a baseball bat. I was like an 80-year-old woman.
'It had taken over every single cell in my body and in my brain.'
The 30-year-old was bitten by a tick as a child but the insect tested negative for Lyme disease, as did later medical exams.
However, some results were 'borderline positive', she said.
Undiagnosed, the fashion heiress suffered with the disease's crippling symptoms - which include chronic fatigue, headaches and muscle pain - for almost two decades.
She described the pain as 'excruciating', detailing how it would often leave her sitting in the bath for hours or walking with a stick. She also had flu-like symptoms and trouble sleeping.
Speaking openly, she insists she was misdiagnosed for 14 of the 19 years she suffered with the illness, with doctors suspecting her ill-health was being brought on by arthritis or, simpler still, growing pains.
Unconvinced, she eventually saw a psychologist who was familiar with Lyme disease. She recognised the symptoms straight away and referred the fashion heiress to another doctor, who eventually confirmed the illness.
'This was like winning the lottery for me. I was so relieved,' said Ally.
In her new book Bite Me: How Lyme Disease Stole My Childhood, Made me Crazy, and Almost Killed Me, Hilfiger opens up about her personal battle with Lyme disease, and shares how she hopes to help others. https://www.amazon.com/Bite-Me-Disease-Childhood-Almost/dp/1455567051
Tommy Hilfiger's daughter reveals her 19-year fight against Lyme disease: Fashion heiress, 30, says condition took over 'every single cell in her body and her brain'
Ally Hilfiger suffered with the debilitating illness for 14 years undiagnosed
Chronic fatigue and body pain eventually discovered as Lyme disease
Touching body felt like 'being hit by baseball bat' and had to walk with stick
The daughter of US fashion kingpin Tommy Hilfiger says Lyme disease left her living 'like an 80-year-old woman' after doctors failed to discover she had the debilitating illness for 14 years.
Ally Hilfiger is understood to have contracted the disease, which is carried and spread by ticks, when she was seven-years-old.
However, she claims she wasn't diagnosed properly until she was 21, leaving her young body ravaged by the condition.
Speaking to the Daily Mail's Sebastian Shakespeare, Ally said: 'I couldn't put lotion on my legs because it felt as if I was being beaten with a baseball bat. I was like an 80-year-old woman.
'It had taken over every single cell in my body and in my brain.'
The 30-year-old was bitten by a tick as a child but the insect tested negative for Lyme disease, as did later medical exams.
However, some results were 'borderline positive', she said.
Undiagnosed, the fashion heiress suffered with the disease's crippling symptoms - which include chronic fatigue, headaches and muscle pain - for almost two decades.
She described the pain as 'excruciating', detailing how it would often leave her sitting in the bath for hours or walking with a stick. She also had flu-like symptoms and trouble sleeping.
Speaking openly, she insists she was misdiagnosed for 14 of the 19 years she suffered with the illness, with doctors suspecting her ill-health was being brought on by arthritis or, simpler still, growing pains.
Unconvinced, she eventually saw a psychologist who was familiar with Lyme disease. She recognised the symptoms straight away and referred the fashion heiress to another doctor, who eventually confirmed the illness.
'This was like winning the lottery for me. I was so relieved,' said Ally.