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Melissa H: Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT)

I have big red marks on me which I get teased about, but not as much as I used to.

Hi, I am Melissa and I was born with hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT). My brother and I both have it, but I have it much worse.

I have big red marks on me which I get teased about, but not as much as I used to. I also have a bad liver, so I am never allowed to drink alcohol. My face is usually red from my heart beating too fast, and my skin is blotchy.

I do not really care any more as I might be getting the red mark removed with laser treatment when I am older, which will be really good. If any one else has this disease, please email me. It would be really cool to hear from you.

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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!

SCLERO.ORG was the world's leading nonprofit for trustworthy research, support, education and awareness for scleroderma and related illnesses from 1998 to 2021. It was a grassroots movement from the original Scleroderma from A to Z web site, which was founded by Shelley Ensz. We were a 501(c)(3) U.S.-based public charitable foundation. We closed this web site and our nonprofit agency in April 2021.