So How's Physical Therapy Going?

Hey, thanks for asking! As I write this, I’ve had two actual therapy sessions. I have two more and then insurance is just sure I’ll be cured.

Ha. Whatever.

At the first PT session, my therapist, let’s call her Kim (because that’s her name…or is it?) gave me a handout that described the lymphatic system and included pictures. They were gross because the lymphatic system is under the skin, so the diagram showed a skinned dude. Ick.

She also gave me a handout that described the exercises she wants me to do. Then, because she thinks I’m an imbecile, she walked me through the exercises. We started with deep breathing. Gag.

Actually, though, the exercises aren’t that bad. They’re very gentle, so I don’t even get out of breath doing them. There’s stretching and breathing and moving of joints. Mostly, the exercises are meant to work with the gentle massage to keep the lymphatic fluid moving in the right direction. See, the muscles that are moving during the exercises are beneath the lymphatic vessels, the massage works the vessels from above, so…everyone is working at a team. Wheee!!

Kim also gave me a handout with directions for self-massage.

I, um, haven’t done any of that yet.

I don’t know why, don’t ask me questions. I just haven’t. To be honest, I haven’t even looked at the paper. Again, no clue why, just…haven’t.

But I have gone swimming several times since the first and second PT sessions. According to Kim, swimming is excellent for the lymphatic system. The gentle pressure from the weight of the water works like massage, so there.

The massages she’s given me during the sessions are quite nice, actually. I mean, once you get past the fact that a stranger is rubbing her hands along your arm in a semi-circular fashion, up and down, up and down and all around.

She tells me that once I start doing the massages myself (ha! Except, okay, I WILL do them…sometime) I’ll actually learn to feel the difference between my left and right arm and be able to tell when ol’ Leftie is retaining fluid. Right now, I couldn’t tell you if Leftie had gone on a bender and was holding in a pint or two of lymphatic fluid as compared to good old Rightie, which happens to have all her lymph nodes and so still works like a champ at draining all that fluid.

Kim did say that from session one to session two, the tissue in my left arm seemed to be moving better, so…that’s good, right? She seemed please when she said it, so we’re going with good.

She keeps talking about a sleeve and I’m all, let’s wait and see. Apparently, if I ever fly again, I’ll need to wear one but hey, a person can go a lifetime without flying if they want to be boring and never have fun again. So there’s that.

She’s asked me a couple of times if the radiation oncologist mentioned the sleeve. I just tell her that all he said was that he was referring me for physical therapy. I don’t actually like talking about him. His very name makes me cranky so the less we speak of him the better.

But seriously folks, it’s fine. Therapy is fine. I’m fine. The lymphedema is fine. Old Leftie here is still hanging out, writing words, typing even more words, feeding my face, not swelling (much) and just being a good old arm.

Oh, hey, I forgot to mention that Kim is glad I’m too precious for fingernail polish. She said that the swelling from lymphedema can inhibit healing and so I should be careful of nicks and scraps on my arm and hand. She also said that nail polish can hide potential fungal infections and so it’s a good that I can’t stand the feel of polish on my fingernails. Did I ever mention that? Yeah, nail polish feels ‘heavy’ on my fingernails. I know how weird that is, believe me, but there you have it. And people sometimes wonder where Liv gets some of her idiosyncrasies.