{"id":780,"date":"2012-09-24T21:29:28","date_gmt":"2012-09-25T04:29:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bizidi.com\/blog\/?p=780"},"modified":"2012-09-24T21:47:07","modified_gmt":"2012-09-25T04:47:07","slug":"lymphedema-physical-therapy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bizidi.com\/blog\/2012\/09\/lymphedema-physical-therapy\/","title":{"rendered":"Lymphedema Physical Therapy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today, Monday, I had my appointment with the Lymphedema Physical Therapist. I had seen her before in April for a baseline measurement of my arm after I had my first surgery for my lymph node biopsy. I had measurements redone, and I was told to return in a couple of weeks for actual exercises. It has only been four weeks today since I had my surgery and she said a total of six weeks is best to wait until I can do actual exercises. She gave me a DVD for stretching exercises that were developed specifically for mastectomy patients. I look forward to trying it soon.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" title=\"Expander??\" src=\"http:\/\/t0.gstatic.com\/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTDmt9-4JP0wlncxzhpC0s9ijqgxIqIvBzOrPL0yb19pjKAOvXf\" alt=\"\" width=\"193\" height=\"135\" \/>Tomorrow I have an appointment to see my Plastic Surgeon and he is supposed to do something with <em>the expander<\/em>. I don&#8217;t know how many visits it requires, so I will ask him tomorrow. I am also supposed to tell him that the Oncology Radiologist requested that I tell him to call him so they can discuss when I will be starting radiation. I have to be cleared by my Plastic Surgeon before I can start the radiation. It is like I get over <em>one<\/em> thing and recover, only to start on<em> something else<\/em> and need to recover from that too. This is a long process and I am not even close to being done.<\/p>\n<p>Today, I think I have been doing better with the pain thing. I still have pain, but it really didn&#8217;t seem as bad at all. I still needed some medication, but it wasn&#8217;t so extreme. Perhaps I am finally easing up on the post surgical pain. I do find that if I wear a supportive garment, it makes it not hurt so much. I discovered if I even wear something while I sleep, it is a major improvement in the pain threshold. Much more tolerable. I am taking less quantity of pain pills and I find that if I alternate them with the Ibuprofen, I can ease away from the narcotic medications. I like the anti-inflammatory effects of the Ibuprofen. I think much of the discomfort is from the remaining swelling and pressure.<\/p>\n<p>It still wore me out to go to the appointment and I had to rest the remainder of the day. I was grateful a meal was brought because I was genuinely tired. I am hoping that the doctor tomorrow will release me to at least take walks and do light exercise. I am going to ask him if I can use the exercise tape that the Lymphodema Specialist gave me. It looks like a great stretching exercise which is just what I need. It is supposed to help with increasing range of motion as well. I am a little guarded still because of the tightness from surgery and the post-op pain. Otherwise, I think I am doing pretty well, but ready to drive? My car hasn&#8217;t been driven since before my surgery. Peter started it yesterday to charge the battery.<\/p>\n<p>I have another appointment in the morning, so I will get my self ready for bed; but maybe I will finish the book that I am reading. It is a sad story, so I will be ready for a happy story next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today, Monday, I had my appointment with the Lymphedema Physical Therapist. I had seen her before in April for a baseline measurement of my arm after I had my first surgery for my lymph node biopsy. I had measurements redone, &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/bizidi.com\/blog\/2012\/09\/lymphedema-physical-therapy\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspiration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bizidi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bizidi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bizidi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bizidi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bizidi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=780"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/bizidi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":782,"href":"http:\/\/bizidi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780\/revisions\/782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bizidi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bizidi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bizidi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}