Lymphedema? and the great flood......

Wow another one of those days!! Got bitten on my leg by a horseflie thought to myself I'll go to dr on Monday, then whilst enjoying a brief respite from the pouring rain (I live next village from Yealmpton on national news as it flooded) another of the nasty buggers bitten me this time on my right arm by wrist I've had all the lymph nodes out in that arm and distinctly remember my BCN (breast cancer nurse) saying "not to cause any trauma on that side or it could turn into Lymphedema (see below description) " so was worried sick I ended up phoning the NHS help line and they put me onto a very nice Dr who phoned me back and wrote out a prescription for antihistamines and antibiotics, so now drugged up to the eyeballs on the stuff, it never rains and then it pours excuse the pun!!!!

If any readers have had their lymph nodes out and don't understand the implications of this here's a description of what Lymphedema is. One of the most common causes of lymphedema is removal of the breast (mastectomy) and underarm lymph tissue for breast cancer. This causes lymphedema of the arm in 10 - 15% of patients, because the lymphatic drainage of the arm passes through the armpit (axilla). The main symptom is persistent swelling of the affected limb also note there is no tablet or drug to take that will relieve this symptom and once you have developed it, it can be very hard to reverse the process, the only thing you can do is wear a compression sleeve and of course exercise can manually move the fluid along so it always helps to do the exercises the BCN gave you whilst in recovery from the mastectomy.

On a lighter not I've been busy baking my first loaf of bread today in borrowed breadmaking machine, tasted delicious and I love the fact I know what's in it also baked a sticky toffee pudding smells yummy, sending you all my love and a cyber slice of the sticky toffee xxxxx