June's Story

I have been in remission the last year and a half, or two years, thank goodness. My derm, Dr. Frank Armstrong, in Port Richey, FL, prescribed for me the two or three years previous, and consulted with the doctors in Miami during that time, at my suggestion. I had heard of them through our website and meeting in NY. Previously, I was always on Prednisone and Cellcept, and from the beginning, a few years before, on the regular course of them, but the last time, he had me on it for a longer period of time, before he said I was in remission, and it worked!

I would have to get more info from Bay Dermatology, whom he worked for, for specifics, as to time. I also got CellCept free from Hoffman LaRoche, because I applied for it, and Dr. Armstrong had to send info to them also, which he gladly did. Cellcept is terribly expensive.

I am now 82. I think I was around 75 when I got Pemphigus Vulgaris the first time. It took six months from the first symptom to finally get a correct diagnosis, and it was by a good accident I found it. I wanted a permanent, but my hairdresser saw an open lesion on the side of my hairline, and said it would have to be removed before I got the perm, so I went to a Dermatologist, and they knew immediately what I had, and they were the doctor's assistants! The doctors were not there that day! So I returned the next day, and a biopsy confirmed it. Had it a few times in the ensuing years, always the same treatment, until the last one. Am now pemphigus-free! Hallelujah!

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