Finding Strength – a Column by Lisa Weber

“You’re imperfect, and you’re wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging.” Brené Brown said these words, but they belong to my heart. The last day of February is dedicated to raising awareness for rare diseases. Rare Disease Day helps people who live with incredible…

When something gets stuck in your throat, you’ll do everything imaginable to dislodge it. That’s why when someone intentionally threads a tube through your nose and down your esophagus, you really have to fight all of your basic instincts that want to remove it. Scleroderma can wreak havoc on the…

There’s an ugly truth about chronic illness. It hides from the rest of the world behind closed doors. Only caregivers and those suffering truly understand.  It’s the suffering that happens when people are forced to mourn the life that was stolen from them. And it’s the…

Sometimes life deals a hand that tests us. We then look for ways to overcome those challenges. But what do we do when the bad news keeps coming? How do we keep moving forward when we feel like more weights than we can carry have been placed upon our shoulders?…

I used to save my empty pill bottles, thinking a Pinterest craft would catch my eye and I would have a good use for my vast collection of rusty-colored medicine containers. Instead, my stockpile grew so rapidly I had no choice but to give in and trash them. Unless I…

The phone rang on a Friday night. I answered it thinking the call probably was from another annoying solicitor. Instead, it was the voice of the person who would introduce me to my disorder. The nurse told that me my tests had come in, and I had scleroderma. Finding answers…

Coming home from the hospital should be a time of smiles and celebration — especially after surviving multiple strokes and spending nearly a week in the ICU, as I recently did. But isn’t life always more complicated than we expect? The fact that I’m alive is remarkable. And having…

Who am I? On some days, I don’t know how to answer that question. But I can tell you with certainty that I am not defined by my autoimmune disease. Scleroderma, my systemic enemy, is trying to destroy me. Every day it does its best to damage my…