Found this story in my travels: Alexis
I presume this is a current picture:
How RuPaul's Drag Race helped Leeds actress discover her rare condition
Rachel Brownstein had suffered since childhood - until a chance conversation with a friend shone a light on her health issues
A Leeds actress whose knees would double in size after a dance class was finally diagnosed with a rare condition after a chance conversation about RuPaul’s Drag Race.
For 40 years, Rachel Brownstein suffered from chronic fatigue and painful joints but doctors were unable to diagnose what was wrong with her.
Things took a turn for the worse in 2019 after Rachel, 41, attended a theatre workshop that included three hours of dancing. By the end of the class, she was left in agony as her knees had doubled in size.
Despite being "barely" able to walk, she went for a meal with a friend and told them about her aches and pains.
The friend then suggested she may have Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes (EDs) as she’d seen drag queen Yvie Oddly, who won Season 11 of Drag Race, talk about the condition on the show.
The NHS says there are various types of EDs but they are a group of rare inherited conditions that affect connective tissue and affect people in different ways.
For Rachel, the condition causes her skin to bruise easily and she also has hypermobile joints, symptoms of the hypermobile type of the condition similar to that experienced by Yvie Oddly.
Rachel said: “I could feel it was hurting, I just felt awful. I met a friend for dinner afterwards and my knees were bad, I could barely walk. She said ‘have you heard about Ehlers Danlos Syndrome?’ someone on Drag Race has it and it sounds like what you have.
“I went on the NHS website and it was like a checklist of my life. I have always had it, I just had never known what ‘it’ was.
“I’ve had issues since childhood with joints and pain.
“Some days I would get massages to go to work to help with the pain.
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Rachel - who admitted she still hasn't watched Drag Race - now wears knee and ankle supports and uses a TENS machine to deal with the pain.
The 41-year-old has already started looking at walking sticks and added that filming for her YouTube channel Auntie Rachel’s Chaotic Kitchen can leave her exhausted and in agony.
She added: “Since getting my diagnosis and talking about it, turns out I’ve got two friends that have it. I think there is such knowledge and power in shared experiences.
“It can help people get diagnosed and get better treatment.
“That’s why I’m talking about it, apparently it’s a rare disease but is not at all, it's just rarely diagnosed.”
RELATED ARTICLES
I presume this is a current picture:
How RuPaul's Drag Race helped Leeds actress discover her rare condition
Rachel Brownstein had suffered since childhood - until a chance conversation with a friend shone a light on her health issues
A Leeds actress whose knees would double in size after a dance class was finally diagnosed with a rare condition after a chance conversation about RuPaul’s Drag Race.
For 40 years, Rachel Brownstein suffered from chronic fatigue and painful joints but doctors were unable to diagnose what was wrong with her.
Things took a turn for the worse in 2019 after Rachel, 41, attended a theatre workshop that included three hours of dancing. By the end of the class, she was left in agony as her knees had doubled in size.
Despite being "barely" able to walk, she went for a meal with a friend and told them about her aches and pains.
The friend then suggested she may have Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes (EDs) as she’d seen drag queen Yvie Oddly, who won Season 11 of Drag Race, talk about the condition on the show.
The NHS says there are various types of EDs but they are a group of rare inherited conditions that affect connective tissue and affect people in different ways.
For Rachel, the condition causes her skin to bruise easily and she also has hypermobile joints, symptoms of the hypermobile type of the condition similar to that experienced by Yvie Oddly.
Rachel said: “I could feel it was hurting, I just felt awful. I met a friend for dinner afterwards and my knees were bad, I could barely walk. She said ‘have you heard about Ehlers Danlos Syndrome?’ someone on Drag Race has it and it sounds like what you have.
“I went on the NHS website and it was like a checklist of my life. I have always had it, I just had never known what ‘it’ was.
“I’ve had issues since childhood with joints and pain.
“Some days I would get massages to go to work to help with the pain.
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Rachel - who admitted she still hasn't watched Drag Race - now wears knee and ankle supports and uses a TENS machine to deal with the pain.
The 41-year-old has already started looking at walking sticks and added that filming for her YouTube channel Auntie Rachel’s Chaotic Kitchen can leave her exhausted and in agony.
She added: “Since getting my diagnosis and talking about it, turns out I’ve got two friends that have it. I think there is such knowledge and power in shared experiences.
“It can help people get diagnosed and get better treatment.
“That’s why I’m talking about it, apparently it’s a rare disease but is not at all, it's just rarely diagnosed.”
RELATED ARTICLES
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