USF ALAMO CHAPTER SUPPORT GROUP

• Click on this paragraph to write to us about your own experiences with scleroderma and join our cyber group!

We offer a haven to come learn about this disease and find support from other members of our group who have been touched by this disruptive disease. We are a caring, supportive group of individuals with varying backgrounds, creeds, cultures, and walks of life with this one common thread running through our lives, Scleroderma.

Our leader is Jean Palmeri, a warrior in the fight against SD. She has, since being diagnosed with the disease, educated herself about Scleroderma, and has become a leading local authority on the disease. Jean's built a reputation among local medical professionals who at times call her to find out the latest breakthroughs and treatments.

We meet the second Thursday night of each month from 7:30 p.m. until 9:30 p.m. in the dining room of Santa Rosa Hospital Northwest. Please come and join us there if at all possible, or write to us here. This web page is new and we hope it will be an effective aide to those who are afflicted with Scleroderma or for those whose lives have been touched by it. If you are local, we urge you to attend our meetings to gather information and support. You are not alone.

If you are in the region of Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, or Louisiana this web page is designed to offer HOPE and the sharing of information. We will be posting the topics we've discussed at each of our meetings and urge those of you from other support groups to share your meetings with us.

Please keep in minds that Scleroderma is not always an automatic death sentence as some physicians would lead you to believe. It is serious, usually it alters the course of your life but it can be treated with various medications and procedures. This editor has been diagnosed since Memorial Day weekend 1981. I have worked full time since then; some aren't as fortunate as I, but some are more fortunate. The disease is somewhat unpredictable, but the earlier the diagnosis the better the chances of controlling it.