Living The Dream

Living the Dream Scleroderma Style

Bringing Awareness to Gastroparesis This Month

August is Gastroparesis Awareness Month. Gastroparesis occurs when the stomach can’t pass food down to the small intestine, thereby affecting the digestion process. Gastroparesis is an unwelcome and debilitating symptom to most scleroderma patients, myself included. Symptoms include bloating, acid reflux, constipation, diarrhea, vomiting, feeling full after…

Happy 70th Birthday to the NHS: Thank You for Keeping Me Alive

On July 5, 2018, over here in the United Kingdom, the National Health Service (NHS) celebrated its 70th year since its set-up by then-Health Secretary Aneurin “Nye” Bevan. According to the NHS70 website, “For the first time, hospitals, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, opticians, and dentists were brought together under…

Scleroderma Awareness Month 2018: Unmet Clinical Needs

We are nearly a week into June, our annual awareness month, which presents a spotlight opportunity for raising awareness about our rare disease and our day-to-day reality of living with scleroderma. The theme for this year’s Rare Disease Day — like last year’s — is research, so…

New Challenges, New Activities

Living with a systemic, chronic, degenerative disease without a known cause or cure makes for a diary filled with medical appointments. Symptom management alone is a full-time job. I have a strict daily routine in place to minimize the severity of my ongoing symptoms. However, as every…

Medical Research and Raising Awareness

Spring has reluctantly arrived over here in the United Kingdom. An increase in the temperature is most welcome, even if it is only marginal due to my location. To make it out of winter without a body crisis by way of flare-ups or the like is, quite frankly,…