To fans ofWonder Woman,Aquamanand other superhero movies that she produced, Deborah Snyder might seem a little larger than life herself. Perceptive, energetic and determined, she has a career beyond most people’s dreams, a lovely home near Los Angeles and a supportive family and husband, Zack Snyder, who’s also her business partner.
But every superhero has a villain, and Deborah’s is adult-onset Still’s disease, a rare form of autoimmune arthritis. It left her with hip damage that made even walking difficult for years.
Seeing her relaxing with one leg tucked under her – something she never could have done a few years ago – it’s impossible to tell that she has arthritis, or that she still takes medication and has had both hips replaced.
A Sudden Setback
In 2007, production was just beginning in Vancouver on the Snyders’ filmWatchmen. Deborah had been fighting a sore throat, achy neck and intermittent spiking fever for a few weeks before seeing a doctor, who sent her to the emergency room.
She spent the weekend in a hospital, where an infectious disease specialist told her she had either an infection around her heart or a condition she’d never heard of: Still’s disease. About a month later, after more tests back home in California, the Still’s diagnosis was confirmed.
“最可怕的部分是在诊断之后，”黛博拉回忆说。“我不知道谁有这个。我找不到可以倾诉的人。我发现了这个网站，它是毁灭性的。”
The fevers eventually stopped, but joint pain kicked in “with a vengeance,” she says. “Within a two-year period, I had severe hip damage.”
But with her demanding career, she was determined to hide the pain. “As a woman in a leadership role, you don’t want people to see your weaknesses. I got good at masking it,” she says.
“她很痛苦，也很害怕，这很艰难，”扎克回忆说。“对我来说，最困难的是看到一个热爱运动、充满活力、身体强壮的人被一件违背他们基本本性、基本线路的事情搞得残废不堪。你不知道该怎么做。你要尽你最大的努力去支持他。”
“One of the Lucky Ones”
Deborah tried a number of medications, but nothing helped for long until the biologic medication she currently uses became available in 2011. After two weeks on it, her symptoms disappeared. Since then, she’s had very minor flares only about three times, she says.
But the damage to her joints was already done. She still can’t make a fist with either hand. And in August 2012 (just months before the birth of the youngest of their two adopted children, now ages 6 and 8), she had her first hip replacement, followed five months later by the second.
她说，她是“幸运的人之一”，找到了一种治疗方法，让她做“惊人的事情”——她说的不是她的事业成就。
“Amazing things are being able to get on a mountain [skiing] again – it might be on a green trail, but it doesn’t matter. It’s being there for my kids so I can run and hike and go to the climbing gym with them,” she says. “It’s not the movies. It’s those small things that are most important.”
Author: Jill Tyrer