Scleroderma and the Ordinary Girl — Kim Tocker

The enormity of systemic scleroderma often feels way too big for me to fight. At times, I feel like a very small person, weakened by disease, who is just trying to get through each day. I often…

While I have been recovering from my knee replacement surgery, I have been giving much thought to how I view things as a scleroderma patient. I have been pondering an age-old concept, considering whether the…

It’s two days before I have surgery as a scleroderma patient, and because I have endured one total knee replacement already, I unfortunately know what I am in for.  However, in the lead-up…

I believe that there is a point when a scleroderma patient realizes that it is time to fully accept that they are unwell and commit to having the disease. Despite that this sounds like…

Many patients with scleroderma experience severe pain. Pain relief and management is a vital necessity for scleroderma patients. Especially because their pain can present itself in many formats, and at varying degrees. However, pain is often isolated within the patient, making…

Writing about scleroderma is important. It helps to raise awareness, and with any luck, funding for research to help find a cure will follow. I believe that one of the most important sources of information comes…

  Being a systemic scleroderma patient and travelling away for a vacation is a huge challenge, mentally, physically and emotionally. Enjoying yourself is even more of a trial, as I recently discovered on…

I am currently preparing for knee replacement surgery, take two (my left knee was replaced eight months ago). The entire preparation has reached fever pitch for me recently, with a flurry of appointments set in…

A family wedding this past weekend became a catalyst that prompted me to think quite carefully about the changes that seem to have occurred in my personality since being diagnosed with systemic scleroderma.

I am preparing for my second knee replacement surgery as a scleroderma patient. It is a miracle I am even contemplating it after my experience with the first. However, if I want to be…

Loneliness comes in many forms, and for many different reasons, each version being a bleak and forlorn experience. I believe there is a particularly desolate and isolated type of loneliness…

Stress and anxiety can be extremely difficult feelings to cope with, especially when dealing with a disease that is literally taking over my body. I feel things happening to my physical self as my scleroderma slowly progresses, and that’s very…