My Arm is Swelling...

The lymphedema is back. And it is awful. My arm started swelling this weekend and I tried wrapping it as I was taught and wore my glove and the swelling still didn’t subside. So I called my friend and physical therapist, Sara, on Monday and was lucky to get in due to a short cancellation. She measured and my right arm is up 4cm and my left arm is up 2cm. While that may not seem like much, when you have 4cm worth of fluid in your arm pooling under the skin, it is quite painful. The left arm isn’t quite so bad; I never had surgery on my left so the disruption in lymph flow is probably due to the mediport on the left side.

So she worked on my arm for about 45 minutes and then she wrapped it, and wrapped it, and wrapped it. Three layers of wrap all the way down to the fingers, I felt like a mummy. But the theory is that it will push the fluid out. I was able to keep my arm wrapped until the middle of the night when I just couldn’t stand it anymore and took all the wrapping off about 1am. Ahhh, relief. My arm could breathe again and I could finally sleep.

Today, I’ve been really tired and I attribute it to the swelling and the poor night’s sleep I received last night because of my arm. I had PT at 10am and she worked some more to get the fluid out, it seems to be worse down by my elbow, which makes sense due to gravity, and she actually got it reduced by about 1cm. Then she wrapped it again. Ack! I feel like a one armed monster. It’s amazing how many things you need total use of your arm for! Typing, for instance, is very difficult and uncomfortable, which is why this will probably be a short blog! Cooking, doing dishes, writing…they all seem to take the full use of both arms. I won’t even talk about the bathroom…I’ll just let you use your imagination there…I’m right handed, no right hand usage…uncomfortable!

I am trying hard to keep my spirits up and stay positive for the next round. I am praying one more round clear CT one more round clear CT one more round. I can do it. Pray with me…one more round…clear CT…one more round…clear CT. We can get a chant going that will encircle the universe and make it reality. I’m ready!!