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For many years now society has had an influence on setting standards women are expected to abide by. Cooking, cleaning, childbearing, and cuteness are a few fundamental C’s when being scoped out by a potential mate. There’s a predestined mentality programmed into our minds, and despite the evolution…

Scleroderma is often a progressive disease, unless someone is fortunate enough to go into remission. For me, remission is but a distant dream. I have even experienced a progression in a number of my symptoms as of late. Particularly, I’ve had increased…

Invisible Disabilities Week, Oct. 15-21, started Sunday, combining with the ongoing October Raynaud’s Awareness Month campaign. It made this a very busy week for our global patient community with awareness-raising opportunities. I have detailed my Raynaud’s reality, highlighting the immense…

There is a very good case to be made for aiming for the stars. I am all for people setting amazing goals and then managing to achieve them. I see it often in the media — those extraordinary individuals who are able to overcome adversity and…

Every morning I am woken early by my husband, Max, brandishing a cup of tea and some toast. My body is always stiff, sore and swollen. I am unable to do very much until I’ve eaten something so I can take my pain relief medications.

There is a magical period of peace every day in everyone’s life, a brief time when we can completely let go and forget our troubles. This beautiful escape is called sleep. It’s the only time we are completely unaware and able to unplug our brains. Sleep is one…

Sunday, Oct. 1, was the start of #RaynaudsAwarenessMonth 2017. As scleroderma patients, we know all too well how debilitating and painful the symptoms of Raynaud’s can be. In addition, the symptom control of the added extras, caused by a lack of blood supply in the scleroderma patient, include…

Living with scleroderma means constant cycles of specialist consultations, and I like to keep a diary to document each visit. While updating my dairy, I started to think about everything I’ve learned from my tenuous relationship with the medical profession. Especially since I had to…

Social interaction is necessary, for most of us, to thrive in life. From childhood on, many bonds are formed in school, church, a workplace or social gatherings. Strong connections are forged from similar personality traits and common interests. As time passes, a flower of friendship is watered with good…

Stiff, bent, inflamed-jointed fingers do not do the best job of getting my shoes on, even though I have no open wounds from calcinosis or ulcers at the moment. Grappling with shoelaces is not easy with my scleroderma fingers, and bending over to…