Lymphedema -- Again...

From the first moment my wife discovered she had breast cancer, there was a deafening silence from the men I know. Even ones whose wives, mothers or girlfriends had breast cancer seemed to have received a gag order from some Central Cancer Command and did little more than mumble about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started this blog…

I wrote about lymphedema for the first time last February (http://breastcancerreaper.blogspot.com/2012/02/lymphedema-another-for-rest-of-your.html), which was really the first time we had to think about it. Being that it was only a few short months after chemo was over and my wife’s hair had only just started to grow back to a “normal” length, lymphedema didn’t really surface as an issue.

Five months later, it’s still not an ISSUE. But it’s become something of an irritation.

See, we have a couple of grandchildren and we’re do-it-yourselfers when it comes to things around the house.

What do those two things have to do with each other?

If you didn’t go back and read the article I wrote in February, the definition of lymphedema could be simply stated: “when lymph fluid builds up in the body's tissues instead of returning to the circulatory system. This causes abnormal swelling in affected areas of the body.” Some of the symptoms of lymphedema are: “Swelling (of the arm); tightness and stiffness; heaviness, aching, pain, puffiness, feeling of "bursting"; numbness or tingling, hardness or firmness; skin color or texture changes”. This can be helped by “lymph tissue massage to stimulate lymph flow and redirect fluid to functioning nodes; modifying your activities…”

How does lymphedema intersect the fact that we have grandchildren and like to do things like grout new ceramic tile, pick up and hold and infant and a toddler, throw going-away parties for daughters headed for New Zealand, keep up a house, go grocery shopping and refinish chairs?
Hopefully you see that life-after-chemo has to undergo a bit of restructuring in light of rebuilding life-as-we-knew-it!

And so it has. Recently, I started the lymph tissue massage. My wife lays on the bed shortly before we turn in and holds the lymph node deprived arm in the air. I lotion up my hands and GENTLY slide them from fingers to armpit, pushing the lymph back into circulation. Not difficult. Not intrusive.

But it ISN’T something we’d ever had to do before March 2011. It’s part of the New Normal. And you know what? That’s OK with me today.

Resource: http://www.communitymemorial.com/services/rehab/lympedema.cfm
Image: http://oakworksblog.massagetables.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/massage-arm.jpg