For columnist Lisa Weber, corns are a painful side effect of scleroderma Did you know that gymnastic balance beams are made of aluminum and wrapped with a thin layer of polyethylene foam and leatherlike material? If a stunt is landed incorrectly, it’s like landing on concrete.

When I was a gymnast, I once missed the landing of a front flip and my heel smacked down — straight through to the metal. At that moment, I was certain I’d shattered the bone. But it turns out that the heel is incredibly sturdy, so the bone was only bruised. Painfully sore for days, but fine otherwise.

Because scleroderma has broken down the padding on the soles of my feet, “skin and bones” now means something new. My feet are now structured eerily similar to the balance beam: hard bone wrapped in a thin layer of skin. The padding is almost nonexistent. Developing cornsThere are only a couple of minutes each day when I’ll walk around without shoes for a few steps here and there, like getting in and out of the shower. And those tiny hobbles are excruciating — similar to smacking my heel on a steel beam.
One way my body tries to protect the bone from wear and tear is to build up calluses. Layers of hard skin encase the area being abused by the… click here to continue reading