Colorado Woman Awaits Stem Cell Transplant For Crippling Scleroderma

Michelle Payen was one of those rare young women who feels comfortable in her own skin. That was before a crippling disease made her prisoner of a body that’s attacking itself.

Payen, 33, was a runner and kick-boxing fanatic three years ago when, while training for the annual YMCA Corporate Cup challenge, she discovered that her fingers were turning blue and were numb with the slightest dip in temperature.

She didn’tworry much about it until the pain prevented her from getting items out of her refrigerator. About the same time, the skin on her hands began to rupture and bleed in places.

An uncle who’s a nurse practitioner told her he thought she had Raynaud’s syndrome — an episodic constriction of blood vessels in the extremities. A visit to her doctor confirmed his suspicion, but he couldn’t explain Payen’s sudden shortness of breath, muscle weakness, and the loss of pigmentation on several areas of her body.

After a battery of tests here, he sent a sample of muscle tissue to Mayo Clinic specialists who determined that Payen has the more serious of two types of scleroderma. The autoimmune disease causes hardening and shrinking of the skin, blood vessels, muscles and tendons, loss of lubrication in the joints and eventually affects major organs. The Scleroderma Foundation, headquartered in Danvers, Mass., estimates 70,000 American adults — 80 percent of them women —have the disease.

Her diagnosis was the beginning of an ordeal she hopes will end with renewed health, but there are some major hurdles to clear: She must complete final screening next week to confirm that she’s a good candidate for a stem cell transplant later this year at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and, if approved for the procedure, her insurance company must agree to pay for it.

Read the full article at The Pueblo (Colo.) Chieftain.