Sorry, I know I've been awful about writing. This last semester was crazy busy. I have attempted to write several times but got interrupted and never finished a post, but the semester is over and I'm home for the break now. I will start by giving a rundown of the past few months to catch you guys up on my life with lymphedema. The semester definitely had its ups and downs but overall I think it had more ups. I liked being busy because it didn't leave me much time to have my bad days were I ultimately just pity myself and the cards I was dealt. I stayed a lot happier which is always a good thing, but with being busy all the time it left me little time to set aside to care for my leg. As we all know living with lymphedema is a full time job on its own between the compression garments, elevating, wrapping days, pumping, and manual drainage. After the past few months in the fast life I should be fired. Sadly, it is not a job I can be fired from. With that being said my leg is probably the biggest it’s ever been, but I'm sure if I had not had the surgery earlier this year it would be way worse. It really hasn't grown that much, and with not being on top of my management routine I am pleasantly surprised. I would also like to add that my leg still stays pretty soft which by itself almost makes the surgery and everything that came with it worth it. So fast forward to the present, today I had my pre-op. It went really well. I love my doctor. It is a little difficult at times because I am the first patient in the Southern California Kaiser area, to receive surgical treatment for lymphedema so my doctors are still learning. That means they don't always have the answers to the questions I have. I'm not going to lie, I feel a little honored at being the gineapig. I get to help pave the way for others in my similar situation. I am excited to see how the treatment of lymphedema continues to progress. Now I will share what was discussed at my appointment: 1. What is going to be done in the surgery? - Lower leg and thigh liposuction with a side of scar revision. The scar revision is for the bump of tissue on my ankle which houses that transferred lymph nodes, which I recieved in January of this year. 2. How long is the anticipated recovery? - For a normal person it would only take about 2 week but because my lovely lymphedema leg is not normal we don't really know. We are just going to have to wait and see. (Hopefully not too much longer than that because I have to go back to work and school in 2 weeks.) 3. There is another surgical technique called Multiple Lymphatic Venous Anastomoses (MLVA.) Will that still be an option for me? - Currently Kaiser does not have the instruments needed to perform this surgery, but my doctor is working to get them. When she does get them she will let me know and we can look into that further. None of my surgeries should prevent me from getting a MLVA which looks to me like the most promising treatment at this point. That's about it. I'm not really expecting much out of this surgery. I'm trying not to get my hopes up so I won't be disappointed with the results. I'm going in will the idea that the appearance of my leg won't change so if it does I can be happy about it. I go in for the surgery Friday the 23rd of December so I will keep you posted on how it goes! Thanks for reading my posts and for your support it really means a lot to me.
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AuthorHi, my name is Sydney, and I have Primary Lymphedema. I created this blog to share my journey, and I hope that by sharing my story I can help those who are on a similar path. Archives
April 2017
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