A Lymphoe……. What??
I had my weekly
“Drain the NHS of funds” meeting on Thursday this week. (I’ve had someone who I
thought was a friend accuse me of being a drain on the resources of the NHS in
the past couple of weeks!). This time I rocked up to the Duchess of Kent
Hospice close to Prospect Park to see a Lymphoedema Nurse as my scars have been
giving me a bit of yip of late and I’ve been suffering from some additional
swelling which has made sleeping a challenge. I presumed that I’d be seeing a nurse who could show me how to
massage the scars and get on with things. I didn’t realise I’d be entering
(yet) another stage of the recovery process. I was slightly concerned initially
to be getting an appointment in a Hospice, I was surprised that they thought I’d gone that far
downhill, but it transpires that the Lymphoedema treatment is partially funded
by the utterly brilliant Sue Ryder charity. The feeling of the place is totally
different to the Royal Berkshire Hospital, as befits a hospice I guess, very
quiet, very peaceful.
We started off
by going through a detailed description of my medical history, I’d completed an
online form a couple of weeks ago where I thought I’d answered everything to
the best of my knowledge, but my nurse had also been in contact with my GP, so
she had the details of when I broke my legs at age 19 which I hadn’t bothered
to list….. I knew at this point that I was going to like Jan, she had a sense
of humour and the ability to get me to speak about things that perhaps I
normally wouldn’t. Questions were asked in such an easy manner that it just
seemed natural to answer truthfully.
Q - “How do you
feel about your body after the surgery?”
A - “I’m not really bothered how I look.”
Q – “What are
you worried about?” A – “I’ve the rest of my life to live with a Lary, it’s
starting to be tough.”
Q – “How are
you sleeping?” A – “Badly” ……
…………. You get
the picture.
I found that
she was so easy to talk to, when I had to strip to the waist so that she could
look at the way my shoulder was reacting to movement, she commented straight away on my
#Shoulder2Shoulder tattoo, asking what it meant. Normally I’d give a bullshit
answer, but this time I gave her the full story, going back to when it was
originally mentioned by Graeme Cook as a mantra for the treatment I was going
to face. After a brief examination of my shoulder movement and a poke and prod
at the scars she confirmed my thoughts that I was in slightly more trouble than
perhaps I’d realised I was. She confirmed that I was suffering from a condition
called Lymphoedema. Perhaps the clue was in the fact that I was being seen in
the Lymphoedema clinic!
Here’s the
definition from the MacMillan website -
Lymphoedema is swelling caused by a
build-up of lymph fluid in the surface tissues of the body. This may happen as
a result of damage to the lymphatic system because of surgery or radiotherapy
to the lymph nodes in the neck and surrounding areas.
Considering
I’ve had both RT and Surgery it’s hardly surprising to find out that it’s had a
go at me. The worrying thing, initially, is that there isn’t actually a cure,
all that can be done is to manage the condition. Again, this is where our
wonderful NHS comes into its own. The treatment to manage the condition would
be painless (well mostly) and easy. First up was the application of Lymphoedema
Taping, developed by a Japanese chropratror, Dr Kenzo Kase in the 1970’s and
first widely seen in the 1980’s Seoul Olympics when it was used by athletes,
it’s commonly known as “K Tape”. Basically the tape lifts the layers of the
skin allowing the pressure to alter around the small lymphatic channels below
the skin, like a massage.
The effect of
the tape, if it works, will be to dissipate the fluid that’s currently building
up in my neck. As well as the tape I’ve been given some exercises to do, some
massage techniques to employ and some breathing exercises.
My drain on the
NHS will continue to increase as the nurse has referred me to a) A Physio to
work on my right shoulder * b) A massage specialist to work on the scaring c) A
reflexologist to do some sort of Cat Fagg White Witch magic on me.
*older readers
may remember that just after I escaped from Churchill Hospital in July last
year I was lucky enough to get some Physio from Vicky at Redingensians RFC, for
various reasons, mainly down to me being a lazy so ‘n so the sessions stopped
in August.
The condition I
have isn’t that serious, well it isn’t for me as I’m quite fit, comparatively
young and not overweight. However, as it is a Head and Neck issue it means I go
to the top of the waiting list without passing go or collecting £200.00. I
probably won’t be seen much before April, but bearing in mind this is a free
service that isn’t too shabby. Whilst it isn’t serious, it isn’t what I
originally thought it would be. I suspected that the scaring hurting, the
swelling increasing and my increased lethargy was just an impact of the
surgery. Knowing that it isn’t and it’s a new condition brought on by the surgery
and RT is somewhat comforting. The SALT team spotted the symptoms, referred me
to the specialists and a plan to control the conditions has been put in place,
all within a two months period.
"Taking one step forward, falling two steps back, can't you get inside your head, I'm tired of dancing, so very tired of dancing."
In other
news……………… Neville has been fairly challenging at the back end of this week,
quite bitey and not overly keen on doing what he’s told, a bit like your
average adolescent. We knew we’d have our work cut out at times, but perhaps
we’re finding puppy ownership harder than we’d envisaged. And then, he’ll turn
into the sweetest, most beautiful dog you could want. Maybe the visit to the "Doggy Dentist" will help to calm him down a bit.
The weekend
will be spent trying to keep warm if the weather forecast is to be believed,
possibly a couple of rugby matches thrown in for good measure.
As always,
thanks for reading.
To be
continued………
#Shoulder2Shoulder
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