A week or so ago I met with the UCSD plastic surgeon I’d heard of who is able to perform lymphedema microsurgery – the only such surgeon I’ve been able to find in San Diego. He was very young and distractingly cute. I liked him, but still have a lot to consider. He trained at… Continue reading Meeting a New Doctor
Some miscellaneous updates here with no real punchlines, all regarding lymphedema, my new new hobby – my old new hobby having been cancer. (I guess moving from a deadly disease to an annoying lifelong condition is progress…??) I exchanged email with the doc at another clinic (UCSD) who I mentioned in my previous post. He… Continue reading Progress is slow…
Last week I had a follow-up appointment with Dr. Cancer. It’s been about twelve weeks since my final round of chemo. Every time I see her, I need to get a blood test beforehand, and I’ve learned that I can schedule that, so I did that the day before – and again, it required lots… Continue reading 12-week Oncology Follow-up
One of the articles I encountered in my lymphedema surgery Googling was about a woman who traveled from San Diego to Orlando to have microsurgery done for her lymphedema. The article specifically mentioned that she initially learned of the technique through Facebook, so I thought me stalking messaging her on FB would be copacetic. (I also discovered… Continue reading Making Friends
The “maintenance” therapy for my lymphedema includes wearing a compression sleeve + gauntlet. However, since the majority of my lymphedema is in the hand, my therapist added a little pad under the gauntlet, in the back. All this seems to work fairly well at keeping the swelling at bay. Last weekend we went skiing, and… Continue reading Switching Gears and Researching Options
Last week when I went to visit Ms. Lymph, I graduated – from a fully bandaged hand/arm, to a compression sleeve and glove. The bandage was utterly ridiculous. The compression sleeve is not awesome, but at least it does not cause people to scream, “Oh my god, what did you do to your arm???” To… Continue reading Lymphedema Graduation
If you read my lymphedema post, you may recall that the next step was to visit Ms. Lymph again to have her wrap my hand. We decided to wait to begin that treatment until after the holidays, and after I had my radiation therapy schedule. That’s all happened now, so on Tuesday, I had my… Continue reading Is This Worth It?
This week I have three different cancer-related medical appointments in three days. Tomorrow I have my radiation oncology mapping appointment, and Thursday I get to go under general anesthesia to have my port removed (yahoo!) – I will try to take recovery room selfies as always. Today’s appointment was my first physical therapy appointment to… Continue reading Lymphedema
Between bald women on SNL, election day, and infusion #5, I have not had a chance to post this little side story about my hand. Yes, my hand; if it’s not one thing it’s another. If you’ll recall, during my mastectomy, I had a sentinel lymph node biopsy done on my right side. They removed… Continue reading So here’s a long story
