Started therapy again this week..interesting results

Hi all.

The good news is my big event tonight was a great sucess and I got a lot of compliments.

I chickened out on wearing my sleeve and glove...it's sad, but I was just too self conscious.

Do any of you stress out about this stuff? It's the special occasions. I don't even care about other times anymore.

I did wear long sleeves so at least I had kineso tape on. Now that this is done, I am going to probably get bandaged for the first time on Friday.

They gave me a gift of...wait for it...a basket of cookies. They are out in the car. I am trying so hard not to go all cookie monster on it. AKKKK!

Have a beautiful evening. 

Once they cure cancer I want a cure for calories!!!

Very mixed results today...below my elbow all good....down....:)

above my elbow up....more than even my original measurements...one was really high

I immediately felt like I screwed up and gained weight....but we measured my healthy upper arm and that was 2 CM smaller. 

Was it my exceptionally frustrating day at work yesterday, was it the 1/2 a beer I had after said stressful day, was it the clonipan after the stressful day, who knows? Could it be the rain?

Could it be that nowI have a good glove and sleeve, that the fluid is getting pushed up?

The LE says in general she does not worry so much about the top measurement, that is the least precise and the most prone to fluctuation, and they would rather see my lower arm and wrist shrink and my upper get larger than the reverse.

TOMORROW--11am--Bandaging

Yikes. I can wear their bandages for about 24 hours, then I have to do them myself until Monday.

I just feel like I kind of failed, like if I lost more weight and been less stressed I might have gotten so much better I would not need the bandages.

Thanks for listening!!!! Having someplace to vent and people to listen makes all the difference.

Well I got one big ol bandaged arm.

It's odd it's looser in the wrist, then I expected.

I definitely had my breakdown,I kind of wandered in dazed to the ACS volunteer booth at the hospital and they had never seen such a thing! Literally had never heard of LE. (cute little office tho)

So the concern is that this could push the fluid down to the lower arm again.

They want me to take them off tomorrow, and if I think the arm is better do them again.

TWO MAJOR QUESTIONS......how blue is it ok for my fingers to get? (They were blueish within moments of putting the bandages on)

Is it ok to try to exercise? Like take a walk. It's a little awkward to walk at all because my stride is thrown off. The bandages keep bumping into my reduced but still pretty big boob.

I guess it's good that I am trying to type because they really want me to keep moving my fingers.

I went to lunch in the cafeteria of the hospital and I kind of felt like a freak.

I have decided that Halloween would be the perfect time for this....I could just wear a mummy costume!!!

Thanks SN...even with the lightest compression I get a bit cold and blue....my mom had reynodes syndrome and I probably have a touch of it....so I went blue even as we started the first layer.

They said if it starts tingling past a 4 to take it off, but that I would be blue the whole time! It's just hard to judge how blue.

Thanks Kira.

Thank heavens it's winter, and thank heavens I have my husbands giant jacket.

I am not sure what I will wear that will fit over all this!

Have a good weekend!

Thanks FAITH

It never fails to awe me how you can turn a message board post into a masterpiece.

Sonds like your work is really blossoming.

Anyway...2 hours later my arm looks a lot better.

I was a little scared that was going to be a trigger of a permanent situation.

My guess is that since my wrist still had to move that part of the bandage got looser.

Still it seems that very little good comes of any but the lightest compression to my upper arm.

Even the kineseo did not do much on the upper.

Maybe I stil have some nodes that kind of work and blocking them off makes things worse???

Anyway I am glad that the silverwave and the medi glove help and hopefully that plus MLD will keep me in the right direction. (I think the key with the silverwave is that the cuff is long and the upper arm is very light)

One thing Dr. Francis put on the table was having the lymph mapping test....and I am beginning to think it might be worthwhile. Obviously with my history I am fearful of infection, but it may give us some answers.

Take it easy all y'a'll

Well I am once again discharged from LE therapy with mixed results.

Some measurments down nearly 3 CM...but upper arm and elbow up overall. Why elbow???

I am supposed to get fitted for the "just-a-fit" or "juxt-a-fit" next week. It's an adjustable compression thingy.

More drama with the mean ortho place and their dumb glove today.

I asked for a one month follow up instead of three months and they were ok. (Actually 3 weeks.)

Asst. LE actually cracked me up on one...she was like it's smaller than your healthy arm, what more do you want me to do.

So the bottom line is we have good control of my hand and lower arm, the upper is still a mystery. It also seems like compressing it just doesn't do good things for the rest.

Go figure!

On a happy note, I am on vacation this week. A do my taxes, go to the doctor, cook for the hubby vacation, but at least I will get away from my desk!