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wendy L: CREST Syndrome

We adapt, we cope, we are alive.

In 1987 I was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. I received highly toxic chemotherapy, and at a later date radiotherapy. It was very successful.

I had Raynaud's as a teenager, but several years ago I was diagnosed with CREST Syndrome, the full CREST.

I am very well. I cope very well and am very grateful for the last sixteen years of my life.

My hands are bad and I can only eat little meals such as yogurt, homemade soups, and fish. I can't swallow any bulky foods like bread, cake and meat. My salivary glands are pretty well defunct, which makes fruit with any acid very unpleasant to eat and digest, so I am often anemic.

Despite all this I would not have it any other way. We adapt, we cope, we are alive. By the way, I will be sixty one in March.

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ISN Artist: Ione Bridgman

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.

ISN Story Editor: Sherry Jo Young

Sherry Jo Young was the ISN Story Editor for this story.

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