Lymphedema and me

I spent most of the day reading the book on lymphedema and discovered I'm doing nearly everything wrong.  No one told me way back then what exactly it was beyond swelling because I have no lymph system in place to drain the fluids away.  The situation is a much more dangerous situation than anyone told me before.  But to be fair, most of this information came out in the past 10 years after I was diagnosed.

So I've downloaded some exercises and will continue the massages and lose weight.  It has become a life or death thing at this stage what with my diabetes and lymphedema, not to mention the more weight I carry in my belly the more estrogen I have in my system.  And my breast cancer was 90% estrogen positive and 95% progesterone positive.  Which means I need to lose weight.

Not sure how that's going to happen but it must.

I also discovered I'm not supposed to be carrying anything heavy on the affected side, nor wash dishes in hot water or without a rubber glove.  Not supposed to take hot showers and I need to keep my arm elevated as much as possible.  I figured out a way to knit with my arm elevated but it will take some getting used to.  In the meantime my knitting will be much slower.

And I need to keep the bandages on 24/7 for at least 8 weeks, if not more.  Aside from showers and changing bandages.

It's an uphill road after all this time, though.

My garden is looking better.  I have a half dozen tobacco plants standing up now but one tomato plant is nearly dead.  I don't think I'm going to lose anymore tobacco though and I can afford to lose a few tomato plants.

I started a new project because I had empty needles and yarn.  No, seriously, if I'm going to have to exercise, I need my mp3 player with me and a lot of my shorts don't have pockets.  Apparently fat women get to wear elastic shorts with no pockets because we don't need them.  Ha!  So I'm making a mp3 case to wear around my neck.  I decided to use a 1x1 ribbing because of the elasticity.  I'm afraid that a simple case won't prevent it from falling out if I bend over and this one will act like a bandage and "hug" it.  Using leftover sock yarn.  I could make several, in fact.

Tonight I'll finish it up then go back to the baby blanket so I don't put so much weight on my shoulder for now.  Until I see some progress I'll leave knitting on the blanket and shell to the daytime when I can prop my arm up on a couple of pillows.  At night I'm in a reclining position and it's harder to do that and have a lot of weight hanging from it.

Zach got the yard mowed but I didn't get any flowers planted because I was reading.  I hope to get out there and at least do the front gardens tomorrow.

TTFN