Today's episode is with another fabulous scleroderma warrior, her name is Amy Gietzen. Amy was diagnosed with scleroderma at the early age of 19. She has been a strong advocate of sharing her story with the scleroderma world. Amy started a group called Scleroderma Super Stars for patients ages 18-40, which you can now find on Inspire, Inspire is the world's largest and fastest growing online health community (https://www.inspire.com). She also started a virtual meetup group called SYNC, Young Adults Needing Connections.

 Today's episode is with Celeste Freeman. Celeste is an occupational therapist, certified hand therapist, and has been working with scleroderma patients for around 15 years. She was recently awarded the Paul Brand Award through the American Society of Hand Therapists. You can learn more about this prestigious award in Celeste’s bio. In this episode, we talk about the anatomy of a scleroderma hand and the patterns of damage. We talk about strategies of taking care of our hands and lastly we talk about gadgets that can make our lives easier. The gadgets will be posted on my website. Celeste's mantra is softer not harder and smarter not harder. 

Today's guest is Rachel Lando. She is a Scleroderma Warrior with a great sense of humor and has started an organization that offers free fitness for Scleroderma patients and people with chronic conditions. She knows how important movement is, regardless of the condition you’re in. 

Today’s episode is with  Dr. John Pauling. Dr. Pauling is a consultant rheumatologist at North Bristol NHS Trust and an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Bristol Medical School. In today’s podcast, we talk about antibodies and their connection to scleroderma. We define what antibodies are, different types of antibodies found in scleroderma patients, and what those antibodies tell us about a scleroderma patient's diagnosis. We also discuss the 15% rule and Raynauds

In today's episode, I talk with Eileen Laird. Eileen is both inspiring and motivating. She shares her journey with rheumatoid arthritis, which started with her being immobilized and in excruciating pain but is now living a life almost pain free. We talk about how diet, lifestyle, and mindset helped her on her journey to better health. These tenets led her to writing her book: Healing Mindset: A Guide to Mind Body Connection For People with Autoimmune Disease. To close the conversation, we talk about the purpose of the book, how the book is set up, her favorite chapters, and helpful tips. The book is an excellent tool and I strongly recommend it!

Today’s episode is with Dr. Antonia Valenzuela, she is a rheumatologist and an assistant professor at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in Santiago, Chile, where she carries out clinical, academic, and research work with a focus on the study of scleroderma. She is currently working on validation of the Mawdsley Questionnaire, a patient reported outcome for calcinosis in patients with scleroderma. We discuss what might be causing calcinosis, how we can manage it and the research being done on it.
If you would like to participate in the Mawdsley Questionnaire, you can email Dr. Antonia Valenzuela at [email protected] 

Today's episode is with Helene Golston, she is a scleroderma warrior. She shares with me what she has endured over the past 26 years. Helene has the cup full attitude as you will be able to hear throughout our conversation.

In today’s episode, I talk with Amy DeMaria. She is the Senior Vice President of Marketing of Inspire. Inspire is the world’s largest social network for health. Inspire brings together people across hundreds of disease communities to connect, share information, and provide support. It is an online community for individuals struggling with their disease. It is a safe, secure, and anonymous website for people to connect to one another. Inspire has over 2 1/2 million members. The scleroderma community has over 77,000 members. Inspire's tagline is : Together we are Better.

In this episode I talk with Physical Therapist Sandy Vojik. One of her philosophies is if you give the body the right stimulation it can improve or heal. She also uses Joseph Pilates philosophy  that if you don't breath well you don't move well. With those 2 ideas she provides breathing techniques, fascia work, and posture exercises. 

In this episode I talk with Sharon Dobie. She is on the board of the Scleroderma Research Foundation, a Family Medicine physician, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Sharon’s son died of complications from Scleroderma in 2017. Today we talk about the Scleroderma Research Foundation's mission, some of the projects the foundation is working on, Sharon’s story of loss, and a little about Bob Saget.