Thursday, August 18, 2011

Scleroderma: Why I have this?

I was diagnosed with Scleroderma last March 2002 with Dr. Barba in Cebu Doctor's Hospital. She says I have all the symptoms with this disease. According to Wikipedia that Scleroderma is a chronic systemic autoimmune disease (primarily of the skin) characterized by fibrosis (or hardening), vascular alterations, and autoantibodies.

It is characterized as limited and diffuse systemic scleroderma. The limited scleroderma  involves cutaneous manifestations that mainly affect the hands, arms and face while the diffuse scleroderma  is rapidly progressing and affects a large area of the skin and one or more internal organs, frequently the kidneys, esophagus, heart and lungs.

As for me, maybe I have both because for now my affected areas are my hands and my lungs. I easily gets cough and cold because of my interstitial lung disease. All my joints is very painful when I can't take my medicines and it seems I look like paralyzed when I forgot to take my medicines. A very expensive disease because you have to go for a monthly check up, do some monthly laboratory tests and the worst thing is my therapy. Oucch! Good thing I had my health insurance benefits from a company. It is really hard, tough and painful to have it.

At first, I don't know about this disease and don't even know that this is already a lifetime disease that there is no cure and have to take my medicines for the rest of my life. I almost give up with my life before but one day God enlightened my mind. I said to myself, I am still lucky to have it because I still have a choice to live longer. At least, I still have a time to say sorry for those people I hurt and forgive for those who hurt me. The people who are affected with this disease will die for complications. I just look for the brighter side of life that because of this I learned to live everyday as if the last day of my life. "Don't waste it!" I saw how my family love me and in return I let them feel that I love them so much. I feel how my atikon love me more everyday. Char!

I have this scleroderma for nine years and I am still alive and kicking now with the help of God. Before, I keep on asking to Him that why me of all millions of people and now its very clear to me that He has really a reasons for everything.

I love my life even if I had Scleroderma! Stay happy everyone! Think positive always!