Hamlin graduated
from high school in 1986 and attended University of the Arts in Philadelphia
for a year and a half before taking
some time off.
A talented and committed athlete, she supported herself as a swim
coach while competing in triathlons and marathons. “I wasn’t
the kind of person who felt I had to go right back and finish up college.
I was
having a good
time, living my life, and doing what felt natural.” But in the mid–1990s
she began to develop a puzzling assortment of symptoms that gradually
made her sports-centered life unfeasible.She recalled the progression
of the disease from the first symptoms to the final diagnosis: “Throughout
the 1990s I felt I was living a dual life; I was a healthy athlete,
but having to deal with a lot of health problems. Then in 2000, my
whole body was
affected.
I couldn’t remember what day it was. It was like having a horrible
hangover but without any drinking. I couldn’t even get out of bed.
I remember thinking, I am going to die. I have a fatal disease that
no one can
diagnose.”
Hamlin’s condition was eventually diagnosed as Lyme disease. As she subsequently
discovered, the disease had been around since the 1800s but had not been properly
identified until the late 1990s. (Coincidentally, Hamlin also learned that
it was a Mount Holyoke alumna, Polly Murray ’55, who alerted the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that an alarmingly large number
of children in Lyme, Connecticut, were being diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.
This triggered a major CDC study that led to the discovery of the disease.)
When Hamlin was finally diagnosed in 2000, she had no health insurance.
She was fortunate and aggressive enough to find a drug company to
sponsor her treatment and a doctor specializing in Lyme disease willing
to work with her.
While she was recuperating, she pondered what she would do with her
life. Before her illness became totally debilitating, she had been
an aquatics director
at a YWCA in Connecticut, but she lost her job when she could no
longer get in the water. “At that point my whole future was uncertain. I wondered,
who am I besides my athletics and competing? And then I realized that
this disease would give me a focus. It definitely changed my perspective
on things.”
Hamlin decided to go back to college, and earned an associate’s degree
at Norwalk Community College. Her adviser there suggested she look into the
programs at Mount Holyoke, Smith, and Wellesley. “My first reaction was,
no way I’m going to an all-women’s college and living in a dorm,” she
recalled. “But I’m also not the kind of person who says, this
is exactly how my life has to be, so I was open to the possibility. I was
accepted
at Mount Holyoke, and when I walked into my first class, which was
medical anthropology, suddenly everything clicked. It felt right. I felt
that this
was where I was supposed to go.”
Hamlin has enjoyed being involved with the FP community. “We share the
same issues. The camaraderie is great. There’s a mixture of being street
smart and book smart. Now I appreciate both.” Hamlin also gets along
well with the traditional-aged students. “I still feel like I’m
18. I don’t look at them and say, I’m so much older.”
Hamlin is majoring in anthropology with a focus on medical anthropology.
She has a minor in culture, health, and science, a Five College program
involving subjects such as research methods, healers, and diseases
in populations. She
is grateful to her adviser, anthropology professor Lynn Morgan. “She
has been very proactive and supportive,” Hamlin said. “She assures
me I’m doing important work.”
Over January Term 2004, Hamlin embarked on an independent study examining
Lyme disease as an example of how the health system treats and responds
to a “new” disease and how such a disease impacts patients and their
families. “The longer you go having the disease without treatment, the
more likely it is to become chronic; chance of full recovery is smaller,” Hamlin
said.
A trip last summer to a conference in York, England, on tick-borne
illnesses proved to be a pivotal experience for Hamlin. After meeting several
Lyme disease
patients, she decided to incorporate their experiences in her research.
She spent two additional weeks traveling throughout the UK, visiting Lyme
disease
sufferers.
“
The patients were so friendly and welcoming and invited me to come into
their homes, hear their stories. I traveled all over Scotland and England interviewing
people. It completely changed my life,” Hamlin said. “When I went
to the UK, I saw that everything I’d been through had a purpose. I
saw myself in all the patients I met at various stages of the disease. I
thought,
maybe I can help these people. I am still in touch by email with some
of them. I get updates on their conditions. I would never have expected any
of this.”
Hamlin is planning to attend graduate school at the University of
Aberdeen, Scotland, home to an institute that specializes in issues of
disease and
treatment in rural
areas. As graduation comes nearer, Hamlin said she is “basking in every
class, every assignment.”
