Thursday 9.4.2008

I am very happy to say that I had an appointment with Ike/Eeka this morning. She took me back to room 2, and when my sports bra was off, she was surprised, I think, that I was so full. She right away noticed the breast, which was obvious, but I was impressed that she also saw around to the side/over my ribs, and up under my arm near that axillary incision. She got to work right away, and I'm glad I took tylenol and motrin before my appointment. 45 minutes later my breast was just a little larger than it's "normal" size, and the area under my upper arm that has been so annoying was improved. Not all the way gone, but much better. I have an appointment tomorrow, too, so that should finish moving/removing the lymph fluid from those areas.

After we were done there, she had me dress, and took me out to the equipment, and I did 6 minutes on the hand bike. (like bicycle pedals for your hands). Since I've regained some range of motion in the left shoulder, she's addressing the loss of strength in that upper shoulder area. After the hand bike, we used the yellow therapy band for several different movements. Some of them hurt, and I can pinpoint where, and other activities just make it ache and feel tired. I also noticed how I had subconsciously learned to compensate for that loss of movement. When I mentioned that I noticed that I was compensating, Ike said that was normal, not only because of the frozen shoulder, but also because of the surgeries on the axilla and breast. I do need to be aware of how I move that arm.

I left, and stopped by the library to return some of the material I had borrowed for the Myrtle Beach trip last week, then stopped by the storage unit to drop off and pick up a couple of things.

Back at home, Daniel was fixing his lunch, and I fixed mine. We visited a bit, and before long, he was about asleep in the chair. He got up and went in the bedroom. I got a little restless, and the pain medicine was helping with the discomfort, so I went outside for a walk in the complex. It's about 67 degrees out this afternoon, and has rained and mostly dried up. I ended up at the clubhouse, where I read the newspaper, shot all the balls off the pool table, and went in the tanner for a few minutes (with the radiated area covered). I went back home and Daniel was still sleeping. He ultimately ended up sleeping about 3 hours this afternoon.

He says he's ok, he thinks the trip down, the 5 days of intense golf in the 90+ degree heat, and the trip back finally caught up with him. I hope that's what it is.

I had a yearning for baked sweet potato, so I went out and got a few groceries for us for dinner. I came back and cooked the steak on the grill, put the sweet potatoes in the microwave, and Dan prepared the sweet corn. Yummy dinner.

By the time we finished eating it was about 9 o'clock, and dark. It's raining again, too.

Daniel drifted off to bed about 10, I wrote here, and I'm ready for bed, too. Tomorrow is therapy at 10 and massage at 1:30. Ahh. I should be about on track tomorrow afternoon.

My breast is really tender/sore from being so full. I can tell when the medicine wears off. And I wait until 4 hours has passed before taking any more.

I'm going to do that now.... Thank you for reading. Hugs.