Rachel's Story: Not Just Anxiety
The Medical Detectives
Soft Skills Media
3.8 • 937 Ratings
🗓️ 9 July 2025
⏱️ 78 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this deeply moving episode of The Medical Detectives, Dr. Nance sits down with Linda, speaking on behalf of her daughter, Rachel Yaffe. When Rachel was a freshman in college she had unexplained aches that were labeled as psychosomatic by doctors. Years later she is given a diagnosis that changes her life. Linda recounts every heartbreaking misstep, every groundbreaking treatment, and the journey that turned her shy girl into a voice for change. Through triumphs, setbacks, and Rachel’s unwavering determination to live fully, this story shines a light on the broken edges of our medical system and the power of believing in one another when all else seems lost.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, everyone. Dr. Nance here. I am actually solo this week. And before we start, I do want to put out a bit of a |
| 0:18.0 | warning. This is a very, very sad story. And so some people need to know |
| 0:25.2 | about the headspace they're about to get into. And this is actually a story that I asked |
| 0:31.5 | our producer, Molly, to find our guest. I believe that this story needs to be heard in this type of format where we can |
| 0:40.1 | really dig into. This is actually a young woman who many people have seen her on social media, |
| 0:47.6 | on TikTok. Her name is Rachel Yaffe. And we actually have her mother telling the story on her |
| 0:52.9 | behalf. So I can't wait for everyone to hear |
| 0:56.6 | the story. One little tidbit is, you know, we have been talking for the past couple of weeks |
| 1:01.8 | about this framework about the seven stages misdiagnosis. And my TED Talk was actually just |
| 1:08.4 | released on YouTube. So if anyone is ever interested in finding that |
| 1:13.1 | story, because we talk about that pretty much in every episode now about these stages of |
| 1:17.6 | misdiagnosis, it's live for everyone to listen to the talk. And I think it helps, again, |
| 1:23.1 | give people an emotional framework for how to handle having a misdiagnosis. So with that, let's get into the |
| 1:30.2 | episode. |
| 1:34.0 | Hi, Linda. Welcome to the medical detectives. Thank you so much for joining us today. Oh, thank you |
| 1:39.7 | for having me. Now, to all our listeners, we invited Linda on to speak. She's actually speaking on |
| 1:46.2 | behalf of her daughter, Rachel. And Linda, I'd like to start by asking, what was Rachel like |
| 1:54.0 | as a kid? Rachel is the oldest of my three children. She was born in 1996 in a suburb of Baltimore. |
| 2:04.3 | She was a happy kid. We had a pretty idyllic neighborhood, nice families, nice kids. I mean, |
| 2:13.1 | she was always shy, but that wasn't really that unusual because rumor has it my husband and I were shy. |
| 2:21.0 | So she was shy. She liked to stick close to home, close to my lap at birthday parties. But I would |
| 2:29.5 | say a happy but shy little girl. And health-wise, was she pretty healthy, or how would you describe her in that regards? |
... |
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