Feeling Normal

I had a beautiful day today! It started out with a trip to the bridal salon for my second dress-fitting. Miss Kim, the seamstress, is truly a miracle worker. She took the size 20 dress and turned it into a size 30 or bigger. It was HUGE! So there was a lot of pinning up to be done to cut it back to my size, probably a size 24 range. I was actually surprised at how huge she had made it. The really good news is that the jacket also fit. She didn't think it would, but she did it somehow. I love it. So she pinned and pinned and also measured for the hem. I go back on August 1 to get it, and it should be perfect! Of course, now I can NOT gain any weight before the wedding; however, I better not LOSE too much either. Interesting challenge for me.

After that I did a little shopping for some odds and ends that I needed to pick up. Then it was time to go to the pool! OH, I was really looking forward to that. When my arm is in the bandages, there is no swimming. I knew that tomorrow it would get wrapped up again and stay that way for a few days. It was just wrapped yesterday, but I took it off for the dress fitting. As long as it was off, I wanted to swim.

I relaxed in the pool for about 15 minutes, but because it was just noon, I knew I couldn't stay out in the sun too long. At about 12:20 or so, I sat in the shade, sipped a diet Coke, and waited for Mark to come and have lunch with me. Once we had lunch, we swam and enjoyed the pool time until about 4 p.m. What a wonderful afternoon!

When I can lounge at the pool with no bandages on, I can feel normal. I can do something that I love and not think about anything else. So much of the time I feel handicapped. Lymphedema is a very demanding condition: wrappings or compression sleeve, moisturizing the skin, remembering to cover up in the sun with a shirt, staying out of hot tubs, manual lymphatic drainage 5-7 times a day, and seeing the therapist 3 days a week. The therapy ends tomorrow, but I will be getting the Flexi-Touch machine soon. I am supposed to hook up to that for at least one hour a day. Yesterday the therapist said twice a day would be better. Sigh. Much of my daily time now is devoted to managing this condition. In between managing the condition, I will still have time to lounge by the pool, drink a diet soda (or sometimes a Bourbon Slushie!), and have lunch with Mark. Life is beautiful.