My beautiful, talented daughter was diagnosed with linear scleroderma at the age of fourteen. She had just won a ballet scholarship to Las Vegas University for two weeks in the summer. Davie had performed in the Nutcracker Ballet in December when she came down with a high fever and what the doctor called a sun fungus on her right arm.

The doctor gave Davie antibiotics and cream for her arm, and also said she had strep throat. Nothing was mentioned of her arm again until March 2001. She ran out of her cream and said it hurt if she did not use it. I looked at her arm and there was a white line from the fingers to the shoulder.

After approximately thirty doctors, she was diagnosed with scleroderma. She is now sixteen and can only straighten her arm to a ninety-degree angle. Thankfully, it did not spread to any other areas. She is on medication, when I can get her to take it. She tried the UVA1 therapy at the University of Michigan, but to no avail. Dr. Maureen Mayes has said Davie could be a candidate for skin grafts. We have to wait and see. If anyone has tried this, I would love some input.

Davie continues her love for dance. She is also on the varsity pom-pom team at school.