GRRRRRRRRR I HATE LE..........
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Is there any way to actually catch the flakes. I guess I need a really fast shutter speed. Oh well. This is from my phone.
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looks as cod and wet as it is here in NJ
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Update from phone appoint with PS:
Hospital stay over night, yes on drains, Need major pain meds (hmmm don't do well with those- will discuss at preop), if all goes well, drains come out in a week and I can work from home on the computer in a weeks time.
Everyone on the east Coast please stay safe. and everyone else be careful if you are driving!!!
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Yucky old drains. However, since they move infection stuff out, I have come to have a certain respect for them.
It wasn't too bad here northwest of Baltimore, and we expect the weather to be better tomorrow.
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well the wet stuff is gone from NJ, clear and sunny now
just heard a cat fight on my door step....are they fighting over turkey bones already?
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Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!0 -
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I ate too much. I'm stuffed.Gobble gobble gobble. I think I did ok until they brought out the desserts. Maybe 2 more alka seltzer will fix it? LOL I do hope you all had a pleasant Thansgiving. For non-USAers, I hope you had a pleasant day.
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Ok ladies, this morning I'm in a bit of a panic mode. PS told me they would use the pink wrist bands during surgery (breast reduction) and no one would touch my affected side. But he didn't seem to have any clue on how long to wait to do MLD or wear compression sleeves after surgery. Has anyone had experience with the answer? I can't remember what I did last time. I will talk to him again at pre-op.
The other thing is that my non-affected arm is larger in the upper arm, so primary doc says "treat it like LE" but then when it comes to surgery time they want to use that arm. Last time they just used the forearm for bp and iv in the wrist - I had a bit of swell but it stabilized after and I haven't had any issues. They did doppler studies many times and never found a clot in the upper arm and even with MLD and compression sleeves, the size doesn't seem to change. Maybe its just a fat arm??(I did have shoulder surgery in 2003 and it has been large ever since). Should I fight and have them leave that arm alone? or let them use the forearm and hand again? I just need strength and I am thinking this isn't a battle to fight anymore.
I will put my foot down on the right side because it is truly my affected side.
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Gma, when I had surgery back in Sept., I wrote on my affected arm with magic marker. NO IV'S, NO BP. I told everyone NOT to use that arm. I had the pink wristband that said LE, but in case, someone didn't look at it, I wrote on my arm just in case. And that worked for me.I don't know what to tell you about the unaffected side.
I saw my LE therapist one week after surgery for MLD. But I had a HX,, and you are having breast surgery, so I am totally unclear what to tell you. Do you have an LE therapist that you can ask?
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LE therapist says it is up to doctor.
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ARGH!!! Doesn't LE therapist realize that doctor is not that experienced with LE (I am assuming) and his/her advice could be important? Can LE therapist CALL the doctor and they decide together????
I get so frustrated when no one person want to suggest/decide a treatment plan,,, they want the other guy to do it.
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After 3 years of this, i'm usually my own advocate and tell them what I want. Then they tell me yes or no.
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Estepp, I just joined this club and I so don't want to be in it. Things were going great! Hair had grown back in, radiation burns had faded, last Herceptin was coming up, and I was buying new clothes because the weight that was lost during chemo had not come back yet. The necrotic hip had been replaced and I was getting back into walking. I was on top of the world, And then one day I noticed the brand new top that had fit me when I bought it had suddenly shrunk and was threatening to tear if I kept trying to shove my arm through the sleeve.
It's not cancer, it's not fatal, it's trivial, but I am so completely bummed, I can't wear anything nice, just x-large t-shirts and flannel shirts. For fancy, it's x-large sweaters. The LE therapist says the sleeve is ordered and will be less burdensome than the layers of bandages. So I know how you feel and how horrible this is and I never heard about this surgery you mentioned, and bold, brave GG is a total wimp about all of this and no one wants to come to my pity party.
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GG, you've come to the right place--we all get it, and we'll give you all the room you need to grieve this new diagnosis and get through it to a better place.
Hang in there on the wrapping! I take it your therapist is doing Complete Decongestive Therapy and teaching you to do it too? And are you able to wrap yourself? It's an important skill to learn so in case of any future flares you can bring everything back into control quickly. I noticed your other post too, and wanted to tell you that a "pump" is not the best option for everyone, and certainly not a necessary part of the treatment like Manual Lymph Drainage and well-fitting garments are. Still, if you and your therapist were to decide a pump is right for you, most insurance (and Medicare too) will cover pumps even when they won't cover garments. Flexitouch can usually arrange a free demo at your therapist's office or at your home, and they may be able to work with your insurance as well. So please don't despair on that front.
Please do keep us posted, and tell us how we can help! Gentle hugs,
Binney0 -
I dreaded getting LE, but when the first signs of it showed along with inflamed enlarged lymph nodes and lumps all over the place on my right side, I was more worried that the cancer had metastasized. Anyway, I don't know how I would have been about it if it had come all on its own, but the cool sleeves from lymphadivas gave me a way to treat it all more lightly. Of course, I couldn't do that until the MLD and wrapping got the swelling down pretty good. But GG I am sorry you got it. The swelling will go down though. Unfortunately, the MLD will have to be continued. When all is well, which is most of the time, I do it once a day. Before bed. It's kind of meditative.
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Thank you, Binney4 and dunesleeper. I will try to up the MLD work, usually I just do it in the shower. I'm not good at self-bandaging my rt arm at the top, but I can do the rest. I got to my thumb, so the LE therapist wrapped thumb and one finger today. It's hard to do MLD on top of all the bandages. I'll do it forever as long as I can go back to wearing real clothes. btw, my therapist isn't big on pumps.
My surgery was Sept 2013. After chemo, I travelled to Israel and nobody said anything about a sleeve. Radiation was after I came back. Hindsight is 20/20 and the sleeve on the plane might have prevented . . . nope, not going there.
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So my new doc thought she would try a ankle bp. I've never had one before and she never did one. She wrapped cuff just above my inner ankle bone and pumped but not overly much. I was laying down on the bed for about a minute with the knee bent and foot flat on bed. She read 118 over 60 and was happy. I feel this is wrong.Over the past I use to run low but with weigh gain around middle ,prediabetic and cholestrol slightly high it seems that maybe my bp should be much higher. Did she do it right?
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Hugz4u, I've had it done there but when my leg is flat on the bed, not bent. Also, it's pumped up to normal compression when it's done. Unless you've had BP problems, though, I wouldn't worry this time - just broad hints next time.
Leah
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Hugz, any way you can get someone to do this more often, so you have a baseline? Maybe your local fire department? They're usually aware of how to do a leg bp, since in emergencies an arm is not always available. What's needed is something to compare your readings to on a more regular basis, so when you get a new reading you know how to interpret the result. A single reading like that one is practically useless by itself.
Leg bp usually runs a bit higher than arm, btw.
What a stupid nuisance LE is! Grrrrrrrrr!
Binney0 -
Thx Binney, I am not sure if I would feel comfy going to the fire dept but you are right they could do the job. Yah I think she did it wrong and I told her that I thought Leg bp runs higher. But she was confident she did it right. I am thinking maybe I need to get my own cuff and learn. Would an ordinary walmart regular size work on a ankle size that would be like a normal arm size? Can you end up hurting yourself with the automatic cuff that inflates and is not hand pumped?
Kind of wished I would have went into the Nursing field with all this LE garbola
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'LE garbola' about sums it up
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The automatic cuff won't hurt you. Even the automatic kinds have a button you push that releases the compression. They may even sell bp cuffs specific to ankles, but I'm sure the arm kind would be fine. I am not a doctor but was an acupuncturist and have frequently used bp cuffs.
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Dune, I assume you mean the auto-cuff won't hurt to use on ankles not affected arm(s)?
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That is correct Marple.
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How did the surgery go gmafoley?
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Been a rough 11 days, but finally starting to feel better. The PS is a bit concerned with the radiated breast - there wasn't alot of blood flow and said it could go necrotic. The PS's partner came to see me in the hospital and ripped off the surgical bra saying it was too tight. She said I needed circulation more than compression. Well that was crazy - the next 3 days I has swell from hell. It is going down slowly, mainly under the arms. Good news is that while in the hospital, they used my leg for BP and didn't argue at all with me. They were very up on LE. I have no swell in my arms at all and I think the swell I do have is surgical swell. Other news - my neck, shoulder and clavicle chronic pain is basically gone at this point. Still waiting on the breast nerve pain. I think the other breast pain is masking what pain I will be left with. We will have to see.
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@dunesleeper, how did you insert a photo into your reply? I saw your snow photo at the top and the question about catching the flakes in a photo. I was going to show how it looks at a higher speed but can't seem to insert a photo.
If you still want to try, next time it snows use a higher speed, you may have a problem with light because there isn't a lot of light when it's snowing and a flash makes the flakes glow.
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GMA Happy to hear that some pain has gone. I was thinking that if your compression bra was so tight it would cut circulation off but a correct fitting one should not. I wonder if that was the case. Anyway I am glad your swell is going down. It sure is nice to hear from you. So glad they were LE educated though. Looks like we won't be sticking those docs on top of the Seattle space needle with the rest of the LE uneducated docs.
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GmaFoley, I hope you are healing. Ask your PS if Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy might help with healing and blood flow. I had a wound on my radiated breast that wouldn't heal and the HBO therapy really helped.
Good luck,
Cakes
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