Staying Alive With Scleroderma — Amy Gietzen

Most of the time, I try to remain positive and open-minded. I learned this a long time ago while dealing with the ups and downs of scleroderma. If I can push through the…

Scleroderma comes with a plethora of uncommon and unbearable symptoms that may arise before or after diagnosis. For the first five years that I was living with scleroderma, I didn’t respond well…

I need a root canal! I have escaped the drama of this procedure for over 40 years, but now my fate is sealed. Before my scleroderma diagnosis, people would actually compliment me…

As a child, I constantly felt like I received the short end of the stick. In my immature mind, my older sister was praised up and down and showered with gifts, and my baby…

Last year, I celebrated the 21st anniversary of my initial diagnosis of systemic scleroderma. Well, it wasn’t really a celebration, and I didn’t have a party with balloons and confetti. It was more of…

Ever since I was a child, my parents fostered in me a solid work ethic and a refusal to quit. Whether I was playing a musical instrument or competing in a spelling bee, my…

Over 20 years ago, I was introduced to scleroderma at the tender age of 19. Our introduction was brief and pretty one-sided. The doctors told me I was sick. They shared that scleroderma was…

Have you ever met someone and felt like the stars were aligned and everything was right in the universe? That’s what it was like to meet my friend Cat Davis. In 2016, I was…

Twenty years. That’s how long I’ve been living with scleroderma. That’s half of my adult life! Over the years, I’ve learned how to cope, be it physically (not being able to do things…

I never was the girl who aspired to be a wife and have children. That lifestyle was never on my radar. As women, we often hear other women saying, “I’ve dreamed about being a…

I can’t breathe, literally! At times I feel like I’m drowning in my own body. Living with scleroderma can be complicated — not because of the disease itself, which has a mind of its…

When people learn that I have scleroderma, they tend to react in one of two ways. Some offer pity and sorrow and treat me as though my life were over. They’ll look at…