Toni Braxton has blessed fans with her music for over 30 years, but the glitz, glamour and fame don’t exclude her from having human experiences. The singer’s been living with lupus, an autoimmune disease, and a heart condition called microvascular angina, both of which she discusses on the SHE MD podcast.
Toni found out she had lupus in 2008, a diagnosis she says took a decade to discover. “Lupus can be very challenging and difficult to diagnose because everything has to line up, it’s almost like an eclipse. And no one could find out what was wrong with me,” Toni says. After seeing “at least six doctors,” she says she began to feel like a hypochondriac.
Before knowing the cause of her issue, she went through two successful pregnancies. But she had to terminate a third pregnancy because of the autoimmune disease. When it came to her career, Toni says she was told to hide her diagnosis because “people get scared around sick celebrities” and are reluctant to offer work.
Toni also has microvascular angina, a type of chest pain caused by problems with the smallest arteries of the heart. She initially attributed the chest tightness to her implants and removed them, but still experienced that feeling. She says at one point doctors were thinking she’d need bypass surgery.
Fortunately, Toni’s health battles have not stopped her career. She’s headed to Vegas for a “love and laughter tour” with Cedric the Entertainer, who was understanding of her health battles as his mom passed away due to complications with lupus.
“It’s not like I’m going first and then him, or vice versa,” she says of the show. “It’s like Sonny and Cher meets Toni and Cedric, so it’s like seven acts.”
More info on the tour can be found on cosmopolitanlasvegas.com.
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