@Flutherit I know, I already changed it. It was so late at night I did not realize you were the OP at first. Sorry for the mistake initially. My apologies. I hope you are able to get your answers at the doctor. I personally think the little bit of research done regarding schleroderma being infectious is very interesting. I think a lot of autoimmune is actually infectious. There were small nonscientific studies done using minocycline, the doctors wanted to thik it was a different property in the antibiotic making patients better, not the antibacterial property. I have no idea if bigger studies were done. I don’t think antibiotics are commonly used present day, and it is still considered autoimmune so I would guess that research went nowhere.
There are other diseases that causes the skin to harden. I think NSF? Is related to kidney disease? I don’t know enough about it.
See a Rheumotoloist.