Angela

I am 24 & both my parents (44&48) have scleroderma and raynauds syndrome. Although my father is much worse off that my mom. My mother has had Lupus since she was 12 and has the arthritis, scleroderma, raynauds due to the Lupus. My father has scleroderma and raynauds phenomenon, and a bad case of it. It all started with a "cold finger" that would not get warm. That was in 1997. Now, he has most of his fingers amputated and now his feet have big wounds that wont heal and keep getting infected. So looks like they may be the next to go. My mother 3 years ago had an ankle replacement surgery that went horribly wrong. She ended up having every single complication that can happen with surgery, happen to her 3 or 4 times! All of us went through 3 years of hell with her and my poor father kept deteriorated while it happened. Now my mother is stable although permanently disabled, but my father is another case. He suffers so much everyday. Its just heartwrenching. And I feel so helpless! I am an only child and try to help them as much as possible. I run errands for them, drive them places and do household chores while trying to work full tiem and go to school.

If anyone out there would like to keep in touch and maybe become "support pals" (via email) I'd love it! It's terrible to have such rare and painful diseases but it's also hard to watch the ones you love suffer from them and you can't do anything about it. I wish everyone well...

Angela - angela_giosi@hsdm.harvard.edu