Life as I know it

I've been dealing with something over the past several days that I realized today illustrates how life is with the incurable and chronic condition of lymphedema.

Fortunately for me, right now it is under control.  But because I have had flare ups in the past, I continue to keep a very close eye on the size of my hand and arm.  I do manual lymphatic drainage most nights, sleep in 5 layers of bandages around my arm, and wear a compression sleeve and gauntlet when I work out.  I also measure my hand and arm at 5 c.m. intervals from time to time to make sure there isn't any swelling that is creeping up on me.

I have to be very careful about trauma to the left arm and hand. Anything could trigger swelling: sunburn; insect bite; cut; high altitude; heat; and burns. You don't realize how much your lymphatic system works all the time to heal your body of the little insults that attack it daily.

Anyway, it was the latter that had the potential to get me recently.  I was in the kitchen cooking up a squash casserole. I wasn't very careful when I was sliding it into the oven and ended up burning my left hand.  I put it under some water right away and treated it with aloe vera. The burn is about 1 inch long.  It didn't really bother me that much at the time-I was busy trying to get dinner on the table.

I realized I could have a problem started when I unwrapped my arm the next morning.  The first layer of bandaging stuck a bit to the scab and pulled it off a little. That hurt, but I told myself to be more careful next time.  After my workout that day, the wound had oozed onto the gauntlet I wear on my hand. Gross, but its washable.  I decided to start wearing a band-aid in between the wound and the gauntlet.

During the day, the wound would look like it was getting better. But after a night under the bandages and band aid, it would be all moist and oozy again. This had been going on for nearly a week.

Two days ago, I had Eric help me measure my arm to see if there was any swelling.  One measurement (10 c.m. from the wrist) was borderline, but not that far different from the last time we had measured it. So it didn't seem like the burn was triggering any swelling. Thank you, Jesus!

My latest approach is to just go bare for a few days until it is healed up.  Last night, I didn't wrap it in the bandage.  I'll confess that I was really tired last night and didn't even do my manual drainage before turning out the lights!  This morning, I went for a training walk and didn't wear the compression sleeve. About half way through, I bent my arm up to keep my hand above my heart and reduce any walking-related swelling.

The bottom line is that I think that the wound is now finally starting to heal.  Keeping it wrapped up was like taking one step forward and two steps backward.  Hopefully a couple days of this will heal the wound without letting the arm swell.  I'll keep any eye on it and definitely will be doing the manual massage tonight.

I realized on my walk that this situation is now a part of my life.  It isn't going away like the cancer went away.  It is a balancing act.  Stay active and live life.  But don't injure the arm.  If I do, then I have to try different approaches (or a combination of them), to keep the arm from swelling. It's not life threatening for me, but it does add a slight burden to day to day living.

I just thought I'd share this aspect of live post-breast cancer as I know it. As always, I appreciate your prayers that this lymphedema stay under control. This is my first summer season with it, and with our upcoming travel and the heat, it could easily swell up.