Hello, my name is Kathy. I am a forty-seven year old white female. I was diagnosed with Focal or Localized Scleroderma (Juvenile Scleroderma) at the age of eighteen months.

I spent a lot of my young life at the Children's Clinic at Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. I do not remember any of my treatment, but do have a report of my case that was included in The Journal of Pediatrics in March 1962.

Surgeries and skin grafts were done to loosen the tightness of the skin when I was very small. The disease affected the right side of my body and while I was young, I was fitted with a special shoe, to lengthen my right leg in order for me to walk at a level pace.

I was terrorized by other children at school making stupid childish remarks, so eventually I stopped wearing the shoe to avoid the harassment.

I married at the age of sixteen, and had my first child at the age of seventeen. I have two of the healthiest children that anyone could ever wish for. I am still married to the same man after thirty one years.

I just lost my wonderful mother in 2001, and until now, I never even thought of asking more questions of the past. I want to talk to more people about this disease and learn more about it.