Want to hear something gross?
The wraps on my legs are still doing a great job… my legs below my knees almost look like real legs most of the time. But now my knees are extra swollen.I GUESS THAT LYMPHATIC FLUID HAS TO GO SOMEWHERE.
I got new pants in the mail today and they were tight NOT AT THE BUTT/THIGHS like normal, but AT MY KNEES.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
…so I put in an order for knee wraps. Yay.
I am also doing an experiment where I wrapped an ace bandage around the top of the wrap on my right leg but not the left… So far, right leg isn’t itching and the wrap has stayed in place! This is NOT the case for my left leg omfgggg aaarrghhh
I need to wear oven mitts or something because I just tore off the wraps and scratched my leg until there was blood all over my hand and … yeah
there is a bandaid there now and the itch has subsided but geez who knew such a small scratch could bleed so much?
Lymphedema talk.
Aaron met me at work and we walked around downtown Salt Lake for an hour or so, got dinner, walked some more… It was really nice, even though I was so damned slow, and my legs really started to hurt. The compression socks roll and bunch up, leaving deep bruises, and the wraps themselves slip down during the day, so the pressure is uneven.
I’m lying on the couch now. Got home, took off the wraps, put on lotion and aloe vera, put on shorts (which I would never, ever do in public), and put my feet up. They itch and they burn and they hurt where the socks cut in. But I look down, and you can very CLEARLY see where the wraps stop on my leg… which really does mean that it’s working.
My knees are in bad shape, but the further you do down on my leg, the more it tapers… it almost looks like I have an ankle again. This is just, what, two weeks of using the wraps?
I would take a photo but I don’t think I could handle that. It’s hard enough showing my legs to Aaron, let alone the world.
IDK. I’m writing mostly because I’m tired and my body hurts, and you’ve all been such great supports. I definitely wouldn’t have what I do without the friends who have been so generous and loving and kind. Thank you.
Okay, my peeps. More lymphedema talk.
Monday, I wore the wraps for 14+ hours. They were burning red and painful by the time I took them off. Very, very unhappy.
Tuesday, I decided to give them a break and did not wear the wraps at all. By the time I got home from work, my legs were swollen again… and after sitting at my desk for a couple of hours, it felt like they were going to burst. It was hella crappy. I could hardly sleep because they felt so tight.
Today, both wraps. Legs still red. So tight. But not the same, deep calf pain as Tuesday, and by the time I got home, there was noticeable improvement. Took off the wraps, took a VERY hot shower and ended with a very cold shower for cool down, including exfoliating. Then lotion + aloe vera. The redness is almost gone already! Legs are nice and cool, they look tons better than this morning.
No art today, ‘cause I am on the couch with legs elevated… but I’ll make a post about portfolio progress a little later on tonight!
aaannd my legs are on fire.
The wraps are great A++ amazing but holy crap there is definitely a daily time limit for how long I can wear them before ‘mildly uncomfortable’ turns into ‘I NEED TO SCRAPE MY SKIN OFF WITH A PAIR OF SCISSORS NOW’
wraps off, lotion on, trying not to scratch… hghh
Are the wraps helping? Have you noticed a difference?
Yes and yes. I have been using just the calf wrap (thigh is coming later this week, I think) on my right leg, and it has stopped it from being in pain. It’s heavy, but my leg doesn’t feel swollen, if that makes sense. Like double bagging a grocery bag, almost. And coupled with lying on the couch with my feet up for a couple of evenings, and wrapping during the day, I’ve had to run to the bathroom every hour. Which is annoying, but great.
My leg is much smaller than it was even just two days ago. It also hurts way less than my left leg, which has never been quite as bad as my right. I hope I can order more wraps soon.
And here I get long-winded about lymphedema. TL;DR: yes, the wrap is great.
The lymphatic system is like a bunch of roots that go all over your body. Its job is to circulate all of that water that humans are made of. Going in, it drops off proteins and nutrients, going out, it washes the debris and bacteria away. But, just like roots, if the lymphatic system is damaged (through injury or, in my case, radiation during cancer treatments), it stops being able to do its job so well. It delivers the fluid and then the fluid just sort of… sits there. And the longer this goes on, the more damaged it gets, the harder your heart works, the more your skin stretches… and pretty soon you can get lesions and super bad infections and blood clots, etc, because your muscles and skin are saturated with this dirty protein water. Super gross.
It can’t be cured because they have no idea how to repair the tiny little fragile lymphatic veins. They’re working on it, sure, but right now, all we can do is drain and compress.
Draining is done with massage (manual lymphatic drainage/total decongestive therapy) by a specialized therapist. You can also do dry brushing yourself, massaging the skin to get the fluid to go back toward your heart. Gravity helps, putting your legs above your heart for long periods of time. That makes your legs more squishy and stuff, but the skin is still stretched out and the lymphatic system is still just gonna drop more fluid down there. So you moisturize your skin to try to get it healthy, elastic, and tight again, and put on a compression wrap (or sock, if your leg is small enough) so that the lymph fluid CAN’T JUST SIT THERE; there’s NO ROOM. This enables you to sit at a desk and stuff and your leg is like ‘man there’s lots of pressure, just gonna push that lymph fluid away.’
Lather, rinse, repeat. Every day. For the rest of your life.
Yeah I totally get how mummies feel, now.
We used our nike giftcard yesterday and got me some good gym shoes. As soon as I get my wrap(s), I can start going back to the gym. I’m really, really excited about this. ELLIPtICALLLL
I just ordered one set of wraps… finally. Ughh so expensive it hurts… that may also be my leg. Hurting. You know. Because I need the wraps.
Still… $250 for each leg and I don’t even know if this will work for sure. x___x;
if it does, though, I’ll buy another set. ughhh.