Howdy! I am Judy, and I am also known as Aunt Judy or Jude. I live in the beautiful mountain community of Tehachapi, California. I am a forty-plus-year scleroderma survivor.

Diagnosed in 1956 when I was twelve years old, I have had a lifetime of learning. My parents were smart. I was treated no differently than my healthy sister and was raised thinking scleroderma was no big deal. I learned to adjust my daily life to the disease's peculiarities.

I did have some physical limitations, so after graduating from high school, instead of applying at the NBA, I got a job in an office. Way back when (the 1960s, now there was a fun decade!) I was one of the first trained in IBM computers. Computers, what fun! I learned keypunching and made a career out of data entry. I do know my way around a keyboard.

I put in thirty years (Yikes! Sounds like a sentence, doesn't it?) at a keyboard before the scleroderma decided that was enough. I was battling fatigue and carpal tunnel, among other things. Each day was a struggle. So, after talking to my doctor, I went on disability. That was over ten years ago and it was the best thing I ever did.

Now, there aren't enough hours in the day. I am very busy. My scleroderma has worsened. Among other things, I have pulmonary fibrosis and pulmonary hypertension, so I am now on oxygen continually, and frustrating as it is, it too is manageable. What do I do to keep busy? I am doing some geneaological research on my family's roots. This has been a decade-long search with no end in sight. And, of course, I "play" with my computer.

I am co-owner/moderator of an email list for other scleroderma/autoimmune disease patients, SD World. I also am a miniaturist. I built and am furnishing my very own one-inch-scale dollhouse. I know, I know. But, I never got one as a child and now I can fulfill that wish. I fashioned and designed some of the furniture in it and built the rest from kits.

I am also now working with polymer clay. Earrings, covered papier mache boxes and various other objects are all on my work table. It keeps me out of trouble, doesn't it? Most of what I do can be found on my Aunt Judy page, and my personal story is on this ISN site at Judy Tarro: Diffuse Scleroderma, Sjogrens, Pulmonary Fibrosis and Pulmonary Hypertension.

I am also an ISN News Guide Assistant, working with Janey Willis and filling in for her as needed in researching daily scleroderma news articles for the ISN Newsroom.

My story of living with scleroderma is featured in the ISN's book, Voices of Scleroderma Volume 3.

So much to do, but not enough time! You may email me at judy-tarro@sclero.org.