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Alec Baldwin has opened up about his battle with Lyme disease.
The 59-year-old contracted the disease when he was bitten by a tick and has spent years living with its crippling symptoms.
‘I got the classic Lyme disease (symptoms) for each successive summer, for five years, every August, like this black lung, flu-like symptoms, sweating to death in my bed,’ he said in an interview with PEOPLE magazine.
The actor was bitten 17 years ago and had a shot, but was bitten for a second time just years later.
‘The first time was the worst of all,’ he said. ‘And I really thought this is it, I’m not going to live. I was alone, I wasn’t married at the time, I was divorced from my first wife. I was lying in bed saying, ‘I’m going to die of Lyme disease,’ in my bed and ‘I hope someone finds me and I’m not here for too long.’’
Baldwin spoke at the LymeAid benefit for the Bay Area Lyme Foundation at Palo Alto.
While addressing the audience, the SNL star revealed he constantly checks his children for tick bites.
‘I want my kids to grow up riding horses and bikes and enjoying themselves every day and not have to spend every day with us going over them with a magnifying glass to make sure they don’t have any ticks on their body or their dogs, but that is part of the lifestyle of where I live,’ he said.
Yolanda Foster, Avril Lavigne and Ben Stiller also suffer from Lyme disease.
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