Read on Twitter
It's #RDAM (Rheumatic Disease Awareness Month) - because our diseases are so invisible, I'm gonna have a running daily twitter thread about a very visible person with a rheumatic disease every day this month. Let's start!
9/1/2020: The brilliant tennis player Venus Williams has Sjogren Syndrome - an autoimmune disease causing dry eyes & mouth, joint pain, and fatigue. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2017/jul/17/venus-williams-longevity-diet-wimbledon-tennis#:~:text=Diagnosed%20with%20Sjogren's%20syndrome%2C%20an,in%20singles%20at%20a%20grand
9/2/2020: Boris Karloff, the classic actor who played Frankenstein, had ankylosing spondylitis -- he may very well have channeled that inflammatory back pain and stiffness into his iconic performance. https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/boris-karloff-king-of-the-monsters/
9/8/2020: Maya Harris, the television analyst, policy advocate, lawyer, and sister of Vice-Presidential candidate Kamala Harris, has been courageous in telling her #lupus story https://www.womenshealthmag.com/health/a32699715/maya-harris-lupus/ (Thanks to @MithuRheum for the suggestion!)
9/9/2020: Knee Arthritis threatened the basketball career of the late Kobe Bryant; fortunately, with medication and surgery, he was able to get the pain under better control and work hard to realize his highest potential.
9/10/2020: Harold Ramis, who influenced an entire generation of comedians through his directing and acting work on classics such as Ghostbusters and Caddyshack, battled autoimmune vasculitis throughout his career until finally succumbing to complications in 2014.
9/7/2020: American founding father Ben Franklin wasn't always smiling like he does on the $100 bill - he suffered from debilitating episodes of gout, so much so that he wrote a "Dialogue Between Franklin and Gout"
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dialogue_Between_Franklin_and_the_Gout #RDAM
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dialogue_Between_Franklin_and_the_Gout #RDAM
