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Eileen |
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Hi everyone, my name is Eileen and I am 30 years old. I was diagnosed
with Scleroderma about a year and a half ago. I also have Raynauds phenom.
Now as I think back, I started to have symptoms around the age of 26. My
hands and feet used to swell up and I couldn't close my hands to make a
fist anymore. I didn't really think anything of it so I let it go and kept
putting off going to the doctor until Chirstmas of 2000. A cousin of mine,
who works in a hospital, had noticed my hands and asked me what was wrong
with them. I told her I didn't know so she made me make an appointment
with my family doctor. I went to see my family doctor and they didn't know
exactly what was wrong with me. They took blood test after blood test and
finally referred me to a Rhuematoligist. My Rhuematoligist asked me about
what kind of symptoms I had had and took one look at my hands and arms and
told me that I had Scleroderma. That was Februaury of 2001. So far it
hasn't been too painful, but it is progressing fast. At first it was only
affecting my hands (curling of the fingers) and my arms (tightening of the
skin), but about 4 months ago I had a CT scan done and now it's affecting
my lungs. I also have problems with my flexibility. I'm currently taking
predisone and darvacet for the pain, protonix for the heart burn and now
with the lung disease they have put me on cytoxan. I'm not in too much
pain, but without the medications I feel as if I can't get out of bed
sometimes. The littlest things that I used to be able to do, like picking
something up off of the ground are now a real challenge. Some times even
putting on my socks takes a lot of work. |
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copyright 2002 Amie Yaussy Return to home page |
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