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Judy C: Mother of Daughter with Linear Morphea Scleroderma

My name is Judy. I am married and the mother of four children. Three months ago, our oldest daughter, Alison, was diagnosed with linear morphea scleroderma (Juvenile Scleroderma).

Over the wintertime we noticed a large bruise like mark over the lower part of her right buttock. She also had various patches that went down her right leg. They are ivory colored patches surrounded by a darker border.

We had gone to an adult dermatologist and he diagnosed her as having something completely different. I scheduled an appointment with the pediatric dermatologist who immediately knew what it was by looking at it. It was biopsied and shown to be Linear Morphea Scleroderma with a lot of inflammation.

We also had ANA and DNA titres drawn and they came back negative. Our course of therapy has been a topical ointment called Protopic, an immuno-suppressant, and Plaquenil, an anti-inflammatory, twice a day.

My daughter, who is eight years old, has really done well with the medications and the whole diagnosis. We have been to an orthopedist for a baseline check of her symmetry and right now everything seems to be okay with her growth. We were told that if we can get her through her growth spurt with good growth she should do just fine.

I would like to know if anyone has taken these medications and what their success has been. If we see no improvement with these medications, I believe the next step is the Methotrexate.

I would love to hear from you.

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ISN Artist: Sherrill Knaggs (In Loving Memory)

Sherrill Knaggs, ISN Artist, created the digital photo to illustrate the story on this page. Sherrill lived in New Zealand. Her story was featured in ISN's book, Voices of Scleroderma Volume 2.

ISN Story Editor: Saba Sadiq

Saba Sadiq is the ISN Story Editor for this story.

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