The condition left her suffering from chronic pain that meant even a hug would hurt her.\n\n\n\n
After sharing her plight, the mum from Fort Wayne, Indiana, US, was offered specialist treatment to reduce the physical appearance of the disorder by daytime TV Show The Doctors.\n\n\n\n
Last June, she underwent her second electrodessication surgery to kill off 1,000 of the \u2018bumps\u2019 on her face and the tissue causing the growths.\n\n\n\n
To lessen the scarring, she then had C02 laser surgery, which smooths out the skin and reduces the appearances of marks.\n\n\n\n
She\u2019s noticed a \u2018huge difference\u2019 in her appearance since her surgery but hopes that others will be more understanding towards people battling with Neurofibromatosis.\n\n\n\n Libby, a photographer, said: \u201cI am very happy with the results and hope to have the rest of them removed some day.\n\n\n\n \u201cI have had about 1,000 of the fibromas removed so far.\n\n\n\n \u201cMy friends and family say that I look great and they notice a huge difference.\n\n\n\n \u201cMy life hasn\u2019t been any different since surgery other than I have raised lots of awareness for NF, which has always been my biggest goal.\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s still a long way to go to heal the emotional damage I\u2019ve undergone over the years, but I know that will only improve over time.\n\n\n\n \u201cThe more surgeries I have, the more confident I will become and that will help to erase some of my painful memories.\u201d\n\n\n\n Libby was a teenager, when hundreds of bumps caused by Neurofibromatosis 1 developed on her skin \u2013 the condition affects one in 2,500 people.\n\n\n\n After the first outbreak she had a few hundred, but after falling pregnant with daughter Lindsey, now 23, her hormones caused the tumours to multiply into the thousands.\n\n\n\n Strangers would stare, point and make horrid comments about her appearance, including that she had a \u2018contagious disease.\u2019\n\n\n\n Libby said: \u201cI have been bullied and victimised my whole life because of the bumps all over my skin, they cover me from head to toe.\n\n\n\n \u201cIn school kids would pick on me all the time, they called me lizard breath and toad.\n\n\n\n \u201cI had to change my name from Elizabeth to Libby, because whenever I heard my name it reminded me of being called lizard breath.\u201d\n\n\n\n At their most prevalent Libby had nearly 6,000 tumours on her body that raised several inches above her skin.\n\n\n\n She believes every aspect of her life was changed because of her appearance \u2013 from struggling to find work, day-to-day interactions and even finding love.\n\n\n\n In addition to struggling to defuse people\u2019s misconceptions about her condition.\n\n\n\n She added: \u201cThe tumours all over my back cause chronic pain, the nerves in my feet have a tingling sensation all the time which make it hard to sleep.\n\n\n\n \u201cThey can even hurt from simple things like a hug or even if water from the shower hits them in a certain way.\n\n\n\n \u201cBut I\u2019m not contagious I have a neurological genetic disorder that cause tumours to form on the both inside and outside of the body wherever there are nerves present.\n\n\n\n \u201cI am a human being too, all I want is to be adored and cared for like anyone else.\n\n\n\n \u201cInstead of making comments, I wish people would talk to me rather than stare like I\u2019m a circus freak, it just makes me feel really uncomfortable.\u201d\n\n\n\n Since revealing her battles with the disorder, Libby embraced her mantra \u2018If we\u2019re not seen, we can\u2019t be heard\u2019 and started the Facebook page \u2018Faces of Neurofibromatosis\u2019 to help unite others with the disorder.\n\n\n\n She says the group has helped provide support and further awareness to sufferers.\n\n\n\n Libby added: \u201cYou have to have NF or be the parent of a child under 18-years-old to be a member, everyone in our Family has NF or is a parent of a minor child with NF \u2013 everyone is wonderful and very supportive!\n\n\n\n \u201cThe page was created on 02\/12\/16 with only two members, myself and my mom \u2013 today my page is at 5,000 NF members worldwide.\u201d\n\n\n\n Libby and charity Neurofibromatosis Midwest, are fundraising to further educate the community, fund further medical research into the disorder and more. Libby Huffer, 45, said she was branded \u201clizard breath\u201d and \u201ctoad\u201d by playground bullies during decades of abuse over her condition. Libby has Neurofibromatosis, a […]\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sciencesandnatures.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2855"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sciencesandnatures.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sciencesandnatures.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sciencesandnatures.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sciencesandnatures.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2855"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sciencesandnatures.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2857,"href":"https:\/\/sciencesandnatures.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2855\/revisions\/2857"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sciencesandnatures.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sciencesandnatures.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sciencesandnatures.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sciencesandnatures.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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