Mary's sickness

[Sionnan]

Used search, never found a topic for this.

Perhaps I'm just morbidly curious, but does anybody think that Mary's illness had a real life basis? I mean, duh, it was real, but if it was a sickness that you could find here.

I mean... coughing, horrible tissue disfigurement, weakness, mood swings (which were probably because of the drugs and her own coping with her illness)...

It almost sounds like tuberculosis... 'cept, I'm fairly sure TB doesn't make your skin and stuff deformed.

Has anybody ever heard of anything like this? Or were the creators just trying to formulate a disease that sounded so bad and exotic that it would leave an impression on the player?

[Cyzyk]

I want to say cancer, and the treatments messed her up as much as the disease, but that's just my first inclination.

[amphreded]

There were people in this forum who believed that Mary's sickness is blood cancer.

[kingkyde]

MAybe it is cancer!

[Xev]

I didnt think blood cancer affected skin in that manner. Seems like a modern day leprosy to me.

[Cyzyk]

Only problem with that is leprosy doesn't have all the symptoms and is very cureable.

[toadstool]

AIDS? does that sound theoretical?
it never says, except the whole coughing stuff.
empyshema, lung cancer pneumonia, who knows. im not a doctor

[Mis Krist.]

Ubertuberculosis. Because it's so ~*dramatic.*~

[Droo]

I have an enormous theory on my computer somewhere about Mary having died of syphilis. I can't seem to find it at the moment, but I'll post it if it turns up.

It's mainly based on the sores we see on her in flashbacks, as well as some of the symptoms such as her violent behaviour change and paralysis, as well as her temporary observation at Brookhaven.

[Sionnan]

Oh man, please do, that sounds really interesting. Thanks for taking the time to write it.

Krist: *sporfle* Nice.

As for cancer, I was thinking at first it might have been so, too... But I've never heard of cancer that has compounded symptoms like that. Unless she had a buttload of cancers.

Which would make sense, because sometimes people just draw the short straw in the genetic lottery. People have a certain susceptibility to develop cancers, so maybe Mary had some sort of genetic defect that made a bunch of her organs just crap out. (Skin is an organ and can get cancer too, so...)

[toadstool]

so if mary had syphilis to say, james could of had it?
that theory makes sense, since the hangars represents the vagina
( its a disease caused by having sex)

[mrow]

I figured Mary's sickness was some kind of mysterious illness, something the doctors couldn't identify. Could help explain why they couldn't find a cure, though there are plenty of known incurable deseases out there that she could have contracted, too.

Syphilis? I would never have thought of something like that. I'm sure you know enough about the sickness to speculate that is the illness Mary had, Drewfus, but where would she have got it from?

[toadstool]

from james maybe, he coulda been fuckin with the bar whores or somethin, or mary was having fun before she met james. it doesnt say who her other lovers werre

[Sionnan]

so if mary had syphilis to say, james could of had it?
that theory makes sense, since the hangars represents the vagina
( its a disease caused by having sex)

Uhm.... what? O_o

Syphilis is treatable, now. It wouldn't have come NEAR to leading Mary to her death.

I... don't think I really want you to clarify what you meant. Uh, YES, James could get syphilis, too... and then they would both get cured.

But your monster symbolism in there is pseudo-intellectually quackish. O_o I'm pretty certain the hangers don't represent Mary... and why the hell would they represent the vagina, anyhow? You know what, nevermind, please, don't explain.

(And mrow, Mary might have gotten it from her mother, if her mother had syphilis...)

[toadstool]

back then it wasnt curable, it was only later they found a cure

[Sionnan]

In the 90's it didn't have a cure?

Syphilis has had a cure since World War II, with the discovery of penicillin. Hell, people have been treating it since BC, and it's had a cure for a good 50 years now.

[toadstool]

oh, i didnt know that. AIDS then?

[AuraTwilight]

AIDS doesn't do to you what it did to Mary. My theory was that it was just a nondescript disease. Who knows, it might be some sort of defective gene that's started kicking her ass?

But blood cancer sounds good.

[alone in the town]

It's been curable for decades.

[BloodRedLion]

Leprosy.

Wait, that's curable too now, isn't it?