Scleroderma and the Ordinary Girl — Kim Tocker

There are some very complicated aspects to scleroderma, such as: the myriad of overlapping symptoms and constant side effects, together with secondary conditions created by the many medications I must take. Revolting tests are another thing I must endure. One of the worst has to be…

There isn’t a day that goes by without someone giving me direction. Showing me the way, enlightening me, if you will. Self-created scleroderma experts seem to pop up all over the place with their endless pearls of wisdom, fervently stepping in to save me from my disease.

Have you ever been laid up by an acute episode of pain that is so debilitating all you can do is just lie there, hardly daring to breath for fear of making your agony worse? Living with systemic scleroderma means that unfortunately, acute episodes of…

I had a friend over for a cuppa and a chat this week, and we found ourselves having a good laugh about events and experiences from our lives. To be honest, it was a lot more than a good laugh. The hilarity reached the stage where we…

My scleroderma keeps me inactive; the pain and fatigue are continuous. There are times when I feel my recliner has trapped me — that it has become a kind of prison because I am forced to rest in it all day. I imagine that many people suffering…

Lately, life has been a bit of a conveyor belt loaded with one health challenge after another due to my systemic scleroderma. Just when it seems to slow to a halt, something cranks up the darn thing again. At times like this it is difficult to find…

Because I’ve been feeling gloomy since adding the diagnosis of secondary adrenal failure to my existing diagnosis of systemic scleroderma, I decided to try a little task that I used to offer my clients when I was a counselor. It’s a bit cliche, but in my experience,…

Lately I’ve been despondent and a bit lost in terms of negotiating my disease. For those of you who don’t follow my column, I began the “Great Prednisone Wean-Off” several months ago. All was going well until yesterday when I failed my…

  Having scleroderma and trying to stay motivated is a challenge at the best of times, and particularly so for me currently. In New Zealand our schools and universities are closed. This means ordinary life is somewhat disrupted, as my youngest child is here much of the time,…

My Cat Willow Pictured is my cat, Willow. Two days prior to New Years Eve she was hit by a car outside our house. We witnessed the event, and tried our very best to restrain and help her, but she ended up bolting as fast…

I remember clearly the day I was given my diagnosis of systemic scleroderma. However, I think it was quite some time after this that I got my diagnosis of systemic scleroderma. “Being given” and “ getting” are two different things. The first happened in the matter of a…

New Year’s resolutions: Like them or not, there is plenty to be said about the whole idea at this time of the year. I recall the last time I resolved to make a new year’s change. It was just prior to my disease being diagnosed, and it was…