Pushing water uphill

I feel like I am fighting a losing battle with my lymphedema arm.

I'll admit that over the summer, I slacked off. I would go for several days without bandaging. Sometimes I would even take a few days off of manual drainage massage. But when I noticed the swelling, I got back into a pretty good discipline of nightly massage and bandaging. On top of that, I've been wearing the compression sleeve and gauntlet most of the day.

I decided to order a custom fit sleeve that I could wear at night that just velcros on. The impetus for this was the upcoming 3 Day walk. I just don't want to be messing around with rolling and wrapping bandages after having walked 20 and 40 miles.  Since it was a custom fit, I got into my discipline a few weeks before I was to be measured for the sleeve. When I went in for the measurements, I was disappointed that while there were some changes, I was still "over" my limit at some measurement points.

Back in January, I had my physical therapist recommend ideal "maximum" measurements at each 5 c.m. point that we measure at. I also have been tracking my size since then, so I know what this arm is capable of. What I've seen is a slow creep upward.  This is despite working at it really hard over the past month. I've switched things up on some nights, adding foam in parts, or adding an extra layer of bandaging on the upper arm. But to no avail.

I pondered the situation. What was I doing differently that may cause the swelling?  I had started taking a Body pump class at the gym. It's a weightlifting class with lots and lots of repetitions. It's an hour long, and we would work different muscles for each song. Imagine-a 3-4 minute song of just bicep curls.  Or squats. Or chest presses.  You get the picture. Ouch. (But a good kind of ouch!) All while holding a weightlifting bar that we add or take off weight plates. I'll admit that I had increased the weight and was pushing my limit. Could walking long distances be causing it? I wear my sleeve, and even my bandaging sometimes, while walking.

I decided to take some time off of the Body pump to see if it made a difference. It didn't.

Friday, I get to pick up my custom sleeve. I'm excited to have something that is more convenient and faster, although my therapist believes that bandaging is more effective. Who knows? Maybe the change will confuse my arm and make it go down?

Its not physically painful. It's just an inconvenience and annoyance. Just another way that life will never be the same.  I think after the 3 Day I will make a series of appointments with my physical therapist for some intensive work on the arm.

I'd appreciate everyone's prayers about it. It is very frustrating to work so hard at something and not have it make a difference. On the other hand, imagine what my arm would be doing if I wasn't working so hard at it? Maybe I would be swollen up like a balloon?