Many of you have asked about my disorder. Early summer 2004, I noticed my ankles started swelling and showed my Mom. After praying for healing, we went to our family doctor, who referred us to Mayo Clinic. After 2 ½ long weeks of tons of tests and continued pitted edema spreading past my knees and elbows, they diagnosed me with a very rare disorder called “Eosinophilic fasciitis”. (At the time of my diagnosis, Mayo had only seen six pediatric cases.) After my diagnosis, they put me on prednisone, an anti-inflammatory steroid which served to arrest the disorder. With each of our attempts to wean off that, I had a flare-up. They added another medication, methotrexate, which is often used for cancer patients, and finally Thanksgiving '06 I successfully came off the steroids. I am currently slowly weaning off the methotrexate and hope to be off that by early 2008. I am doing relatively well, though I need to continue to do stretching exercises for range of motion. I have some arthritis in my joints, cannot run any distance and have to stay off my feet as much as possible. Yet through it all, I have learned that God will work even this out for good and that this is an important part of his good plan for my life.