I spend much of my day worrying about my arm. It's still summer here so I stretch out my arms often, turn them around, and think/worry/agonise: is the left arm swollen? Is it thicker than the right arm? Do I have lymphodema? Will I have to wear a compression sleeve? - I feel sick at the thought.
Well now my friend CJ has had two strokes and cannot talk and is paralysed on the right side where she has no sensation and goodness knows what the left side brain damage - very bad, say the doctors - really means.
And she turned 40 in October. She is a really determined person and is now off to rehab where I am sure what she can better, she will. But I keep thinking - sure she wishes she had just lymphedema or was at high risk of it like I am.
This sure puts lymphedema and a compression sleeve into perspective. Her strokes and their outcome have jolted me. Pray for her and go out there and live your life to the full.
I live in Johannesburg, South Africa, where I was diagnosed with breast cancer on Thursday January 15 2009. This is my journey with cancer and other musings as surveyed - initially temporarily hairless - from under my hats.
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