On May 5, 2004, after approximately a four-year battle with the disease Scleroderma, my sister, Gayla Christoffersen passed away. Gayla was the 1994 Miss Utah Body Building Champion. Gayla lived with my family and I for three years. We cared for her daily while she lived in our home. The skin on her entire body went hard due to the disease. She had open sores on all her knuckles for the entire three years, which required care three to four times a day. She couldn't move her hands, they were stuck in one position because the skin was so tight. She went to a wound care specialist and a physical therapist at the University of Utah every week. They could not help her. The disease was Rheumatoid arthritis based which caused her to be in constant pain in all her joints. She was on enough pain medication to kill any normal person but she had built up such a tolerance for them in order to survive living with the excruciating pain. The Doctors tried all sorts of pain medication including, Oxicontin, Percodan, Lortab, Methadone and any others they could think of. The last year of her life she was down to 95 pounds. She was taking 12 Methadone a day and also about five Percodan throughout the day when the pain got unbearable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We took her to a Doctor at the University of Utah to see if they could help her. We flew her to California several times to see Doctor Franco who thought he could help her with a controversial therapy called "Antibiotic Therapy", but he was unable to help. We also took her to UCLA to see Doctor Clements who was studying the disease. All the Doctors could do was study her because their was no cure or any drugs or therapy that could stop the progression of the disease. All the doctors said they hadn't seen anyone that the disease had come on in such a short time or with such intensity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While we were in California Doctor Henrichs, who's wife had Scleroderma, offered to remove Gayla's breast implants that were about to burst through her skin because the skin was so tight. The impact on myself, my wife, my kids, Gayla's two daughters, her grandkids, and all those who knew her was life changing. To watch her slowly waste away in such constant and intense pain, not to mention the psychological pain, is impossible to put into words. It got to a point where Gayla could no longer feed herself or do the basic daily tasks on her own. She was a prisoner trapped in her own stone-like body. We had to face the fact that she would spend the rest of her days on earth in a rest home. She was placed on a morphine drip and was mostly incoherent. Gayla was a real fighter, she would not give up and always believed they would be able to help her. The doctor had told me once that if she got to a point where she wanted to give up there were things they could do to help her. When I discussed this with Gayla she said she did not want to leave her two daughter's, grandkids and us. She fought to the bitter end.