People with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome are often referred to as Zebras and the Zebra is the symbol for Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome is a rare disease and because of this it is often difficult to diagnose - many doctors are poorly educated on it and so they aren't aware of the signs and others just don't expect to come across it. Why the Zebra, then? Medical students are taught 'When you hear hoof beats, think horses, not Zebras' and rightly so, or they'd be diagnosing everybody with all sorts of weird and wonderful illnesses. If you heard hoof beats, you would probably expect it to be a horse, but that doesn't mean that Zebras don't exist. People with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome are the Zebras of the medical world, because we are rare, but we certainly do exist!
Here's some pictures that fellow EDS-ers have sent me, embracing their inner Zebra.
The final picture is a project that Amy (who has EDS) undertook for EDS awareness week with her friend as a Zebra.
No comments:
Post a Comment