Free Republic

Before Steve Nickerson, a photographer at The Rocky Mountain News in Denver, began his treatments for systemic scleroderma, the illness had already sabotaged his body on multiple fronts. His skin and fingers were so severely stiffened - "tough as rhino hide," he recalled one doctor saying - that he could not tie his shoes and could barely hold his Nikon. His lungs became scarred. He became so weak that he could not climb a single step without gasping for breath. Even eating became arduous: His mouth would not open sufficiently for a normal bite. "I can tear an apple apart,...

Before Steve Nickerson, a photographer at The Rocky Mountain News in Denver, began his treatments for systemic scleroderma, the illness had already sabotaged his body on multiple fronts. His skin and fingers were so severely stiffened — “tough as rhino hide,” he recalled one doctor saying — that he could not tie his shoes and could barely hold his Nikon. His lungs became scarred. He became so weak that he could not climb a single step without gasping for breath. Even eating became arduous: his mouth would not open sufficiently for a normal bite. “I can tear an apple apart,...

Associated Press CHICAGO — For all of her 20s, when Edjuana Ross should have been relishing the thrill of early adulthood, she was instead in and out of hospitals, battling a disease that attacked her skin, brain and heart. Now, at 33, she has her life back, thanks to a stem-cell transplant from her own bone marrow, a drastic, experimental treatment that could be promising for patients with severe lupus. Ross' illness is in remission for the first time since her diagnosis shortly after high-school graduation. "I'm just trying to get used to being well, and it's a very weird...

Christina Herron knows that scleroderma likely will claim her life by the time she turns 25 -- the age when most people are just diagnosed with the chronic disease. The 19-year-old Carrollton High School graduate has had major stomach surgery and more than 200 skin ulcers in the eight years she has suffered from the connective tissue disorder that results in tightened skin. "It's a hard adjustment," Herron said slowly. "Other teens your age don't have to deal with what you do." Scleroderma -- which has struck 300,000 people in the United States -- isn't always fatal. Herron is not...