Lymphe-loser

I went in for a lymphedema follow-up appointment this morning. This afternoon, we'll go for our pre-op consult with Mayfield at Ft. Carson. During the interim, we've been running errands like crazy and, look! I have just enough time before leaving to give you some very good news:

The lymphedema has reversed! Wooo hoooo hooooo hoooo hoooooooooooooooooooooo!

Praise God. And thank you for all your prayers. This is a very tender mercy, and it's a very sweet icing on top of a very fancy cake.

How do we know it has reversed? Let me back up a bit.

At my first appointment with Lil, a lymphedema specialist, she measured both arms. To do this, she made marks on my arm every 4 centimeters starting at my main hand knuckle and going all the way up to my shoulder.

Then, at each mark, she used her tape measure to take the circumference of my arm at that mark. She then uses these measurements to calculate the "volume" of my arm in mL.

Lil measured my left arm, the unaffected one, to use a baseline. My right arm started off about 300 mL bigger. That sounds like a lot, but spread over the whole appendage, it was barely detectable.

But I detected it. And treating it right away was pretty key to our success.

As for the treatment, I've described before the manual drainage and compression sleeves. At night, I slept in a special, super-puffy foam sleeve with a waffled texture that left my arm looking like a buffet item each morning.

Each time I've gone back to Lil, my arm was smaller and smaller until today, when it measured the same size as the left. And this is with my having not worn compression sleeves for most of the past week. (I'd been feeling a very sore nerve or tendon or something and began to think that perhaps I was squeezing it too much, so I stopped. . .)

So, hoorah! I now need to wear a sleeve a) when I work out and b) when I fly (on an airplane, when flying to tend to my business as a superhero, it's not necessary).

I am also still taping my first two fingers, which have a teensy bit of swelling left in them.

God Bless Lil and the wonderful work she does! I can tell from my internet reading that a lot of women don't have a resource like her--so knowledgeable, kind and helpful. I'm exceedingly thankful for her.

AND, as she made the marks on my arm today, she commented, "We'll start down here at this little Barbie Doll wrist." Extra credit goes to the person who is FIRST EVER to compare one of my body parts to a Barbie Doll's.