When I was fourteen years old, I spent the whole summer laying out in the sun. I developed a white patch that my mother thought was ringworm.

She took me to the dermatologist, who diagnosed morphea. To start with, he prescribed topical cream and vitamin E supplements. It later left splashes all over my left leg, so we went to another dermatologist who diagnosed it as linear morphea.

The white patches eventually turned brown like a bad bruise. I tried to go to a tanning bed a couple of years after that, but the morphea started growing again and made a splash above my pubic bone on the left side.

Since then (I am thirty-four years old now), I have had no new patches. I stay out of the sun and use no creams. (The creams the doctors prescribed caused the veins to come to the top of my skin.)

I always thought there was a link to the sun and at fourteen, I had been on a high protein diet and lost around 30 pounds. I hope that some day they have a cure for this disease, and I will pray for everyone in this group.