....Starting Physical Therapy again!

For over a week I have noticed that my armpit and chest wall were getting more sore every day. I thought at first it was just because I am starting to wear a bra every day and maybe that it's just going to take some getting used to. Then I worried that maybe I was getting my cancer back or something. It had started to feel better and less sore weeks after my last radiation treatment, but now we were going backwards and so ....I was beginning to worry. I noticed that I am even having more pain, when I extend my arm too far. I didn't tell anyone in the family what I was concerned about, but and decided to make an appointment with my Physical Therapist and see what she thought.

9:00 am was my appointment this morning and I prayed as I entered the hospital (once again) that it would not be anything bad.  I teased the kids last night before we went to bed, and made everyone promise that we wouldn't have any traumas for at least a week! (I didn't want to be the one who broke that promise) After the therapist looked at my arm pit and my chest wall and felt around the area and I told her what was going on, she said that I had lymphedema. Now I only thought that you could get lymphedema in your arm and hand?  Isn't that the reason I have been wearing that tight arm wrap and massaging it every morning? She said that it is the most common area to get it in your arm,  but I had it in my arm pit and on the chest wall. When she pressed on it and I told her how bad it hurt, she explained that what lymphedema is ... is the swelling of the soft tissues under the arm and and on the whole chest wall. Many times lymphedema is followed by numbness, discomfort and infection. My chest area and arm pit aren't  red, and so we are hoping that is a good sign that I DON'T have any infection. So what do I do about it now? Well, lymphedema is  for life, or at least that is what they say. You basically go to PT and try to massage the area to move around the toxins that are stuck and then manage the pain.

I am frustrated one... because I didn't know you could get lymphedma there, so yet another reason to have more Knowledge. Plus... I don't want to believe that I have to go my whole life with this pain and aching. I will check into it, but for now I am going to go take a hot bath with Epsom salts and see if I can help get the toxins out any quicker.

I have been discouraged because I am still so fatigued... and now this. I tried to just ignore it last week, especially while Jeff was doing so bad, but I realized by Friday that I needed to call in and get it checked out. I don't mean to be negative, I just want more than anything to feel good and quit hurting. Maybe some day. Thanks dear friends for your love, support and prayers. I will make it some how, but I pray that in the midst of this... I can stay strong and learn what I am suppose to learn. Night!

 

"Do what you can, but never forget that letting go is very different from giving up. Of all the things you can make in life, remember you make all the difference in your life."

"Put your faith, and not your fears, in charge. Courage isn’t the absence of fears but how you wrestle with them."