Doing better

Thank you all for indulging me in my pity party over the weekend.  It felt good to just barf it all out there on the blog.

I am doing okay.  As everyone is, I have been very busy. That is why I haven't updated in a couple days. Christmas is this weekend, and I am hosting local available family here on Christmas Eve for dinner.  Not only that, I've been going to see the physical therapist every day.  AND, its raining like crazy here in North County San Diego.  I've been going back and forth to Escondido, where my parents live, so they can watch the kids while I do my medical errands.  The older 2 kids spent Monday night over there with some of their cousins and had a great time. My youngest brother is home from the Army too, so I enjoyed the time I was able to spend over there in between my comings and goings.  This lymphedema is slightly inconvenient!

My physical therapist and I continue to work on my hand and arm.  Each person is different, so it takes time to see what works for you specifically.  She feels like she has figured out my arm. My hand, however, is temperamental.  She wrapped my arm/hand lighter yesterday, but my hand still was swollen.  There was improvement of .5 cm.  But still puffy when I took the bandages off.  Today, she wrapped it with a piece of foam on the back of my hand to see how that went.  It may be counterproductive if my hand wants less attention.  We'll see tomorrow the effect of the foam.  I'll take Eric to the appointment tomorrow to start to learn the bandaging technique.

I had my eyes examined today.  After round 5 of chemo, I was worried about my eyes.  Not only were they watering, but they were oozing and crusty. Yuck.  The good news today is that my eyes are healthy!  Thank you Jesus for that.  My contact lens prescription hasn't changed, so that was good.  The watering eyes is common with chemo.  It's the body's way of trying to combat the dryness, she said.  It makes tears, but that doesn't really moisturize the eyes.  Kind of like putting water on dry skin...it can actually dry them more. She gave me an OTC eye drop to try.  As for the twitching eyes/eyelids....that is stress.  Who me, stressed?  Imagine that!  Who would have thunk it?

Anyway, I'm doing better. I feel like the other swelling in my body is going down.  This week is week 3 post-chemo, and unlike the last 18 weeks, I don't have to go in to get blasted with more chemo drugs on Friday.  It's time to recover and get stronger.  More white blood cells every day.  I'm still frustrated about my hand, but there is some purpose in it that God has.  I have no idea what it could be right now.  But I cling to Romans 8:28:  God will work ALL things out for my good.  I trust that.  Please continue the prayers for the swelling to go down.  That would be an awesome Christmas gift from above!