Ok so I feel bad for my lymphedema specialist, I am texting her asking her what to do for my cartoon looking hand. It has swelled up so much I hate it. She is having me remove the gauntlet which goes on my hand it looks like fingerless gloves. She said I may have to switch to a glove, ok let me say now come on can I not catch a break? I really do not want a glove on one hand all the time. I was not supposed to go see her until Wednesday but because of the swelling … Continue reading →

Ok so today is day one with my “arm girdle” also known as the compression garment and hand gauntlet. I have had it on for about 3 hours now and my fingers look like Eddie Murphy’s in the Nutty Professor. My whole hand is swollen, I have to take my wedding ring off and I am not crazy about it. When it is not there I find myself rubbing where it is supposed to be. I know it is silly I can just wear it on my other hand but I like it where it is. Lymphedema is one of … Continue reading →

OK when you think of lymphedema and you think it is no big deal and it is not painful well you may want to reconsider that line of thinking. It has been about 3 weeks of being wrapped from fingers to shoulder and it is definitely uncomfortable. I am still upset that I have done everything that the doctors told me to do and I am still stuck with lymphedema. The disorder at first is not uncomfortable but your affected limb can start feeling heavy and you can also get tingly fingers (if you have it in your arm), you … Continue reading →

Ok I do not usually put pictures on my blogs but with this lymphedema I really feel the need to do so. First let me say typing when you are undergoing lymphedema treatment is very hard so if my blogs are not as frequent lately I apologize. I have a great lymphedema specialist named Tiffany at TLC in Dallas. She said it was ok to use these pictures and her for my blog. She did think it was odd that my husband was taking pictures of my getting wrapped for the first time but hey he was there to learn … Continue reading →

When I start talking about getting this lymphedema treatment I am really not very happy about it. First I had to find a specialist trained in Lymphedema. While I was doing this I found out things about this that I did not know. For instance I did not know that there is no cure for this and only maintenance and reduction of the swelling is possible. Basically forever I am going to have to fight this and potentially have to wear the compression sleeve forever. When I did my searches I found that this treatment comes in four parts the … Continue reading →

So if you start to develop lymphedema you may start feeling like your affected arm is heavy. There are a few symptoms and some are hard to describe. It is quite a weird feeling to have your arm feeling like you have weights attached to it. I have found that when I lay on my arm my fingers get all tingly and my arm just hurts all together and I hate the feeling. My left arm recently started to swell and it is now doing what I call a play dough type of feeling. If my arm lays on anything, … Continue reading →

Ok so you know that I was diagnosed with breast cancer going on 6 years ago and shortly after I was diagnosed my doctor went back in and put a medical port in under my collar bone and went ahead and removed a large group of lymph nodes from under my left arm. I had asked the doctor to only take out a couple but he went rather aggressive and removed 22 lymph nodes. I really did not want that many removed because me being me I had done a lot of research on it and I knew the more … Continue reading →

My new Booby pal is due to have her biopsy on Friday. She said that her doctor wanted to wait until her monthly visitor came to see if the lump was still there. Well considering it has been there for over a year my guess is that it will be there before, during and after the visitor leaves. I am not 100% sure that she did not want to wait on the biopsy. I know she is scared to get it done, I was too. I wanted to take her by the shoulder and say look you could potentially have … Continue reading →

As I mentioned in my last entry my friends sister is facing the possibility of breast cancer and was worrying about paying for a mammogram. Many people may not know there are organizations that help pay for these lifesaving tests for the under and un-insured. When I heard that I began to find organizations that serviced her town. The first place I called was the American Cancer Society their counselors were amazing. I gave them her information and within minutes I had a list of 5 organizations that offered free mammograms and if need be further diagnostic testing. After I … Continue reading →