Happy Thanksgiving Weekend

Once again the Former Boyfriend and I are out sync with the masses. As usual millions of people are out buying things this weekend, the current American transformation of Thanksgiving.  Some traditions are worth preserving, all change is not good change.  We spent the weekend here at the house surrounded by family members.  It was a good choice for us.  We had the classic Thanksgiving Day feast including turkey, ham, lasagna, salad, lentils, bread and many other things I can’t remember. 

Unfortunately, the pie didn’t make it to the party.  Roger, Allen, Phadera, Jaden and Aaron were in route with the pies when they had a breakdown on the road.  BJ (Johnny’s mechanic) rushed to their rescue like a knight in shining armor, but with a two hour drive up to their stranded vehicle and the added time to fix it they turned around and headed back home.

I’m continuing photo Friday….Yes I know today is Saturday, but this I just had to share.  They didn’t get any Thanksgiving dinner…but they had PIE!

Stuck in a truck, with nothing but pie.

A new and personal topic for my continuing ed

All the recent tests are finally in and everything looks very good.  I’m back to doing laser treatments three times per week to facilitate healing and reduce scar tissue along with continuing the painful scar tissue release work with my Chiropractor.  This is all an effort to be proactive and reduce my chances of developing lymphedema (fluid retention due to the removal of lymph nodes).  I’m also starting continuing education work to become certified to treat lymphedema since I have found very few medical providers have any clue what to do.  We don’t even have anyone certified at Children’s.

Most women who develop breast cancer related lymphedema (BCRL) will do so within three years of treatment.  Survivors not developing near-term BCRL sadly retain a lifetime risk.  The most recent study that I have found said that of those who were affected, 80% developed lymphedema within two years and 89% within three years of treatment.  And for those survivors who make it to twenty years post treatment 49% reported lymphedema.  BCRL risk factors seem to be additive – lucky me- I got the max treatment with chemotherapy, surgery, and proton radiation.

The bit of good news that I have found is all of this is that weight lifting has a protective effect against the development of lymphedema. And if there is one exercise that I love to do its lift weights.  So since today is photo Friday I did my workout, got good and pumped and took the weekly photo. And as always, it's not the photo I'm posting. Everyone have a great Thanksgiving, we love you all.

THIS is what lymphedema looks like