I want to share my story of morphea scleroderma, which spans nearly eighteen years now.

After a traumatic experience in my first year of college, during which I saw a dear friend drown, and another drown trying to rescue him, I returned home with a small, white patch on my back. The patch did not itch and slowly grew to about an inch long over the course of a year.

Normally blessed with excellent skin, I truly believed it would get better and that the discoloration would go away. It did not. It grew harder and would mildly itch. I was fairly careless and carefree at that time, so when a skin specialist diagnosed me with scleroderma, I did not even blink.

I was given strong ointments that greatly helped to soften the area; however, a while later I realized that the ointment had a very high steroid content. I noticed the effect the steroids were having on me during that time. I stopped the treatment when only a small patch of hard skin remained. Since then, I have been on homeopathy. And while stressful factors have caused the patch to become inflamed occasionally, I generally remain in good health.