First of all, last night's dinner of cheese and blueberry blintzes for Shavuot were fabulous. We also had a lovely service and some study sessions at SOJC, our new shul. Mark gave his Torah Trivia contest as the last of the four study sessions. It was after the ice cream social intermission, between the two early sessions and the two later sessions, so obviously a chunk of people with kids went home. Still, he had a respectable and manageable group of 18 or so people who LOVED his contest. Our friend Ed won in a tie-breaker question. How exciting! I'm sure he will be asked to do it again next year.
Yesterday I used the morning to empty out each and every one of my dresser drawers (13 total), clean them up, and reorganize them. I discovered that I had 84 pairs of socks. Seriously! No one needs 84 pairs of socks. I threw 16 pairs away and put 27 pairs in a bag to give to the Goodwill. So I did keep 41 pairs, but at least they now all fit in one single drawer. BTW, this did not include the many, many pairs of pantyhose and knee hi stockings. I literally just grabbed half of them in my hand and put them in the trash! I also threw out five bras and put another 13 in the Goodwill bag. I had no idea I had over 18 bras in the drawer! I now have only 8. I have the six new mastectomy bras that have the pocket for the silicone breast form in them, and I kept 2 of my old ones. They were kind of new and pretty. You never know... On Friday, after my PT appointment, I plan to clean off the tops of my three dressers, and if there's time, I'm going to delve into the two drawers in the nightstand. They are getting scary!
Because I had an early afternoon PT appointment today, which would require removing the bandages and showering before heading up there, I realized last night that there wasn't time to go to services this morning. Mark went by himself and said he had a great time. I'll go tomorrow, which is the more important day anyway since there is Yizkor. So while he was gone, I took a 35 minute walk of about a mile and a half. It was HOT. I wore my big hat and white long-sleeved shirt. Still, I was sweating. When I got back, I unwrapped all the bandages (8 of them!) and discovered they were wet. In fact the most inner one, the stocking sleeve, was wringing wet. Hours later it was still wet! I also saw that there were about four little open sores and many long red ugly patches on the inside of the elbow, probably from rubbing and sweat. I took a much longed-for shower, then put neosporin on the sores, slathered on Eucerin moisturizer, and headed up to PT.
She did not rewrap my arm, Thank God! She agreed that I needed to keep putting some neosporin ointment on the booboos. After the manual lymph drainage, she put on a compression sleeve that is somewhat lighter and looser than the one I had at home. I am not supposed to sleep with it on, so that's a good thing. I can shower again tomorrow morning. Yay!
Following this appointment, I went to the prosthetic place to pick up my compression glove with sleeves. It worked out well that I didn't have the big bandages on because I could try on the glove. It was TIGHT, WAY TOO TIGHT. They told me to sit with it on for five minutes and see if it felt better. NO, it didn't! They agreed and are ordering a bigger size. I can pick it up next Wednesday. Glad I tried it on and didn't just go out with it.
While I was gone to PT, Mark got two more boxes emptied out of the bedroom today. He is filling up the drawers of his new dresser. It's getting better in there. It should look great by Friday.
Tonight we are going up to a lecture by an AARP representative, sponsored by the Solivita Democrat Club. I hope it's interesting.
I want to thank Evey publicly here for her fabulous Parent's Day gift. She sent us a blu-ray player, the new Star Trek movie on blu-ray, the necessary cable to hook it up, and a one month subscription to Netflix. Mark set it up yesterday, and it's just amazing! We had no idea it could do so many things and look so good. Now we are saying things like, "I bet this would look even better on that bigger, 3-D TV we saw at BJs."
I am glad that you get a break from your bandages. Your lymphedema therapist sounds very conscientious and knowledgeable. I hope that the sores on your arm heal up quickly. A new 3-D TV sounds like fun.
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