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Daynelle: Morphea

Two days of panic and counting.

I am thirty-five and from Michigan.

Two days of panic and counting. I just got my biopsy results. The doctor was not in, but the nurse told me it is morphea, something she had never heard of before. I have to wait two weeks to talk to the doctor.

The spot is on my right elbow. It is white and the skin seems to be paper thin. There is no 'meat' left under the elbow and it looks hollow. There is pain from it, but it is not unbearable. I do not know how it started. it may have been a brown spot or a bruise, all I noticed was the white spot.

About four years ago I started having gout (or pseudo-gout) type attacks, with no official diagnosis yet. The attacks were few and far between. About six months ago the attacks started coming almost back to back. Just as one joint healed, another one went. It was very painful. I wonder if these things are related? I have also lost about fifteen pounds in the same time frame. I have always been thin, but now I am very thin. However, I think it is due to being in pain and just not eating.

I do not go in the sun a lot. I do not recall any bad sunburns. I always have a 'farmer's tan', but elsewhere I am very pale. Other people have mentioned neck, shoulder, and chest pains. I get these too. My heart was checked and seems okay. I figured the pains were from the pseudo gout, now I am starting to think those pains are from something else, maybe this morphea stuff? Could it all be related?

The same doctor removed moles from my face [no cancer]. One spot healed fine, though it has a very hard scar. The other spot turned into little hard white spots along the line of the scar. They kind of look like hard water blisters. I fear this may turn into another morphea spot.

Needless to say, I do not want anymore spots and I am terrified of this spreading. Does it always spread? Has anyone heard of it stopping after one spot? How can I prevent future spots?

If this is from my body making too much collagen, how come the spot is hollow? It would make more sense if the spot was swelled up. I read that collagen is your body's protein, so, if I am making too much collagen, would it make sense to cut protein out of my diet? (Webmaster's Note: Please maintain a normal well-balanced diet since there is no correlation between diet and morphea. A complete lack of protein could cause far more medical problems!)

I do not know what to do. I am so confused. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks a bunch!

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ISN Artist: Sherrill Knaggs (In Loving Memory)

Sherrill Knaggs, ISN Artist, created the digital photo to illustrate the story on this page. Sherrill lived in New Zealand. Her story was featured in ISN's book, Voices of Scleroderma Volume 2.

ISN Story Editor: Judith Thompson Devlin

Judith Thompson Devlin is the ISN Story Editor for this story. She is also lead editor of the ISN's wonderful Voices of Scleroderma book series!

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