In 2002 I was diagnosed with diffuse scleroderma. It was a hard thing to take for me.
My facial expression changed a lot, but this went unnoticed to the people that do not know me very well. My friends say that I have gotten plastic surgery done.
The worst part are the lumps in my chest, some were so uncomfortable that I had to get them surgically removed.
The pain in my joints is strong, but manageable. I take medications, but what has really caused a trauma in me is the aesthetic part.
ISN Artist Ione Bridgman created original artwork to illustrate this page. She is 90 years old, and lives in New Zealand. Her lovely paintings illustrate many of our pages and the covers of our Voices of Scleroderma Book Series.
Iko H: Limited Systemic Sclerosis(Belgium) I am fifty-one years old and in May 2011 my diagnosis of scleroderma was confirmed. I am studying for horse veterinarian and am in my last year...
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Alba León is the ISN Translator
Judith Thompson Devlin is the ISN Story Editor