Our Garden
Filed under: Uncategorized
Month: May 2020
Lymphedema
Ever since the pandemic has been going on, I’ve basically left the house to go to doctor appointments or walk the dogs. Or physical therapy (PT). When I go to PT, I see a lymphedema specialist. Why? Because they stole some of my lymph nodes on each side! Meanies.
I had two on the left and three on the right removed. What do lymph nodes do? Well, stuff! To the Google!
Apparently they help keep you from getting sick. So, so comforting. And apparently they’re shaped like beans. And there are hundreds of them in your body. They do a lot of social distancing, except in the neck, underarms - where mine were removed from - chest, belly, groin. My PT specialist squishes the ones in my neck, across my chest and does a thing on my belly. This last time we also squished the ones in the middle of my chest more. “Squish” I’m sure is the technical term used in classroom teaching about lymph nodes.
To continue. They are part of the lymphatic system. They work with your spleen, tonsils and adenoids. What do people with no tonsils or adenoids do, I wonder? Do they have to squish too? Deep thoughts…
They are near the surface and kind of are connected by vessels. No veins, but I suppose we can just call them lymph veins. Why not? They move fluid around your body that is clear and watery. And there are cells! Yes. Cells. Lymphocytes. B-cells and T-cells.
T-cells. Brought to fame via the AIDS epidemic. AIDS kills CD4 T-cells that help protect you. Back on track now - I could probably research more and go down a rabbit hole here trying to figure out the mechanisms and progression of the disease and also why it took so long for it to be taken seriously. I digress.
B-cells. Basically, they put a little orange flag on germs to let the immune system know that they need to go. It’s not really orange, but just humor me.
T-cells. Multitaskers. Some go after the germs. Some are administrators and keep track of immune cells. It’s good to know if you need more of X immune cell and that some of the Y immune cells can be decommissioned.
In short, the reason your doctor grabs your neck every chance they get is that they’re looking for swelling. If your lymphatic system isn’t working right, or is, uh, backed up, they start to congregate and cause swelling. That is my medical explanation.
Because they stole some of mine, my system will probably need a little bit of help forever to drain and move stuff around properly. I’ll have to be very cognizant of swelling in my arms and legs, and I’m slowly learning how to do a little bit of the massage myself. Probably slowly because darnit. I prefer someone else to do the massaging. I do feel better after I get things moving more. I will probably get sleeves to wear on airplanes - assuming anyone ever flies again - to help prevent swelling, but so far, it looks like my system is adapting fairly well. I still do have swelling under my arms, but that’s due to healing and all the fun that goes with that. The most important thing is medical-related. I should not have my blood pressure taken on my upper arm and I still need to figure out where I am to get blood draws. Light pressure on my upper arms is fine, but I nee
d to avoid the crushing pressure of a blood pressure cuff or a tourniquet for a blood draw. Blood pressure can be taken on the lower arm, and so far it's been entertaining to see the
wildly different readings different nurses come up with!
I do have an issue with my right underarm hair though. Someone pulled that one way down and my underarms are lopsided. Oh well, not going to worry about that. Just save it for a party trick! Hey, look! My underarms are weird!! Wait until you see my chest!!! I’m good to go shirtless now, by the way. No nipples? No problem! Hahahaha!!!
Blog 71
First of all: Happy Mother's Day!!!
This is, in fact, my 71st blog post since I started writing last summer. A few things have happened in the last year, but thank you to everyone who has stuck with me through this. I can feel the love, even though I haven’t seen many of you in quite some time. Okay, most of you. What with social distancing and friends all over the world and whatnot. I’m sending virtual hugs to all!
I can do hugs again now. They’re different, but that’s fine. Currently, I’m only hugging my husband because of social distancing, but I hope to hug friends, family, and complete strangers who need a hug again in the future. And, yes, I’ll be happy to wear a mask.
Right now I’m very thankful for a lot of things. A big one is that, while some stenographers are struggling during this time, I’ve been as busy as I want to be. I’m taking this weekend mostly off - just a few hours of on-call work to help out someone who needs some time - but it is definitely needed. I am glad to be back to work. Glad to be busy. But ohmigosh! I’m exhausted by the end of a day or a week.
I’m still recovering. I want to just be back to normal, go, go go! But I am constantly having to remind myself: These things take time. Your body has undergone an enormous amount of trauma. It needs time to heal still. It’s just harder to remember that when mostly I’m fine.
I’ve been really good about not exceeding my limits so far, though. I don’t want any setbacks. Am I taking my recovery too slow, perhaps? Maybe. But I’m fine with that. I’d rather be at the back of the pack of runners and still finish the race than be running flat out and then fall over in the middle.
I’m using a running analogy because that’s what I want to aspire to eventually. I used to run. I used to be so fast! Okay, I was 5 when that was happening. But still. I used to enjoy finishing my blistering 8 minute mile - yes, I know that’s not fast, but I have short legs? - and the feeling of accomplishment.
I feel like, without the extra weight up front holding me back, maybe I can run? Again, something I’ll have to start slow and work up to. Am not planning a marathon any time soon. I’ll be taking the same approach to running as I am to recovery. Slow and steady. Do the stuff you need to do every day. That’s physical therapy at the moment. And walking more.
I did at least 2 miles today. I would like to point out that where we live, it’s very hilly. And when I say hilly, I don’t mean rolling hills. I mean the type of hills that are tough to drive a car up in the winter if it’s just snowing, not icy, because they are so steep and just go on forever. My running will probably have to be confined to the short flat stretch between our house and the far stop sign for a while. That’s fine.
So, I’ll finish with today’s wisdom: Some things take a lot of work and a lot of time. I’m thankful that I wrapped my head around this in court reporting school (finally). I needed to get to 225 words per minute. I didn’t have a choice. I’d left my former life in mortgage banking to try this new career. It took me 3 years, but I did it.
And then promptly dropped out of school and started practicing at home. In my defense, I already had a Bachelor’s degree! But I kept practicing every day, and then when I started working, I practiced 7 hours per day while at work until they trusted me enough to go live. And since then, I don’t think I’ve ever had a single day where I don’t add a word to my dictionary or tweak how I write something.
The improvement and striving toward a goal may never end. That’s okay. I think that’s why I’m so busy right now. I am confident in my work, but I try to never assume I know everything or that I can’t get better.
Tomorrow I will do my PT again. I’m thinking I can push my bicep curls up more, but I don’t think I have any weights between 5 and 10 lbs. Maybe do 5 reps at 10? And then 15 more at 5? Perhaps. If not, that’s okay. One day at a time. I got this.