I woke up early Friday morning and my right hand and arm were really swollen. I have little hands with prominent bones and veins. My hand was so swollen I couldn't see the veins. I went back to bed and propped the arm on a pillow. I called Dr. Hick's office as soon as it opened and they had me come in right away. Since they took out so many lymph nodes with the mastectomy we were all thinking lymphadema. I did have an ultrasound of the arm to make sure there weren't any clots or anything else strange going on. Now I have an appointment with an OT for a lymphadema eval and possible treatment. At this stage it is hard to tell if it is just swelling from excessive word processing and beading, delayed reaction to the placement of the breast expander or truly lymphadema.
I talked to my youngest sister, Beth. She is a lymphadema specialist. After talking to her I also found some websites with the techniques we talked about that had pictures! I am so visual I needed pictures or drawings of the areas I am supposed to work with. So now I have something I can do until I can get in for the eval.
I can't believe how shook up I was by all of this. It really threw me for a loop. It seems like the closer I get to "normal" the fewer emotional reserves I have, especially for any glitches in my health.
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