SCLERODERMA: Know the Symptoms
Helping you discover if the person in your care has this autoimmune disease
BY:MARC LICHTER
Diagnosing the autoimmune disease called scleroderma is far from simple. The wide range of symptoms can lead you to taking the person in your care to a multitude of doctors—from dentists to orthopedists to dermatologists, pulmonologists, endocrinologists and more—each looking at the symptoms individually and not necessarily putting all the pieces together to view all the symptoms as being related to a single disease. This emphasizes the need to tell all doctors about the other doctors you are seeing and why, so that they may work together to form a diagnosis or direct you to a doctor who can.Symptoms and conditions related to scleroderma include but are not limited to:
- Hardening/coarsening/itching of the skin
- Swallowing difficulties
- Reflux
- Breathing difficulties, including pulmonary fibrosis and pulmonary hypertension
- Dramatic weight change
- Dry mouth
- Loosening or increasingly cavity-prone teeth
- Oral infections
- Infections at tips of fingers and toes
- Raynaud's Syndrome—a circulatory condition that causes reduced blood flow to feet and hands, especially, resulting in a feeling of extreme cold in extremities
- Sjogren's Syndrome—highlighted by dry mouth, dry eyes, and other dryness conditions that could affect breathing, swallowing and more
- Joint and bone pain, including bone reabsorption and joint inflammation
- Fatigue
The list goes on. For more information, check the Scleroderma Foundation, the International Scleroderma Network and the Scleroderma Research Foundation.