A photographer with a chronic illness hasn't seen her friends in 4 months due to COVID-19, but she still found a way to party with them on her birthday

Alexa Machado blowing out her birthday candles with her "friends."Alexa Machado Photography

• Alexa Machado is a photographer who has been isolating in San Diego since California's lockdown was announced on March 19.
• She has postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), which makes it difficult for her to control her heart rate and blood pressure. The condition could be exacerbated by COVID-19, so she is taking extra precautions.
• It means she hasn't been able to see her friends in person for months, but that didn't stop her from celebrating with them for her birthday.
• She had cake, swung at a piñata, and opened presents surrounded by cut-out photos of her friends, and shared the experience in hilarious photos on Facebook.

Alexa Machado is a 26-year-old fine art composite photographer from San Diego, California. Since lockdown was announced in her home state in March, she has been isolating at home with her parents.

Machado has a condition called POTS that could be worsened if she were to contract COVID-19, so she hasn't been able to see any of her friends in person in four months.

To celebrate her 26th birthday this year, instead of having her friends over in person, she cut out photos of them. She taped their photos to household objects and to tripods, and then she dressed them up to give them a more human-like appearance.

Machado documented the festivities in a series of hilarious photos that she shared on her Facebook page.

Take a look at the shots she took of her and her friends at her socially distanced birthday party.