New Lymphedema Gear!

Thanks to my brother in law I was able to purchase several sets of sleeves and gloves, this set is my favorite!

These are much more fun to wear than plain brown!  People sometimes think I am a crazy tattoo lady until they get a close look.  Everyone enjoys these sleeves and gloves.

Thank you Den for your thoughtful gift.  I forgot to take pictures of the others but I’ll share those soon.

The company I order these from always send me a little note.

Check them out if you need compression sleeves or gloves, they are a lot of fun!

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Lymphedema Facts

Mom Got A Package

Henry here to tell you about a delivery to our house.  Mom got a small package.

Filled with small boxes.

From the gift certificate she got from Uncle Sam!

That made her hop up and down and smile!

Helping Mom cope with her lymphedema Uncle Sam made it possible for her to choose cute and fun compression garments, not the ugly brown ones she thought she was stuck with!

Her favorite in the shipment?  The Puppy Glove of course.

These are from a company called LympheDIVAS.

Here is the founder’s story:  Rachel’s Story

As you may be aware I destroyed one of my Mom’s gloves in a zombie puppy trance, not my fault!

I have moved on to other a more interesting item found shopping on the tables and counters:

Dollar Store reading glasses, yummy!

Message to My Generous Uncle Sam – You Saved My Bacon

Henry here with an update to the latest lesson learned by a 7 month old puppy.

As you may recall, I went into another dimension and chewed my Mom’s expensive lymphedema glove making it useless.

My Uncle Sam in a fit of ESP (we have a special bond and he felt my distress upon learning that chewing the expensive glove made my Mom turn into a lecture mistress) purchased an extremely generous gift certificate for my Mom.

The gift certificate was lost in e-mail hell for awhile but that was good fortune because the LympheDivas company just started and awesome sale and Mom got extra stuff!

Mom was able to not only replace the destroyed glove but buy all of the following:

Hummingbirds, magical tiny creatures that have boundless energy,  this sleeve and glove will make her arm feel light and airy. 

The Koi are powerful fish that can easily swim against currents and upstream.  This sleeve and glove will bring my Mom good fortune and help her be courageous.

The puppy glove to remind her of me and my brothers.

A miniature secret garden glove, perfecting for a quick meditation to uplift spirits.

Really, Uncle Sam was very thoughtful and generous with this gift.  Having these extra garments sure helps with laundry as they need different handling then the rest of the laundry and especially helps Mom feel more cheerful with options on what to wear in the morning.

Well Uncle Sam me and Mom voted and you are definitely winning as Uncle and Brother of the Year.

What have I been up to? And thank goodness for my Uncle Sam!

Henry here with an update.  I now weigh 60 pounds.  Mom could hardly lift me up to weigh me.  This is the weight the rescue people told Mom I would reach when full grown.  Um, I am only seven months old and still growing.  You do the math.  Maybe we can start a pool to guess my final weight!

What have I been up to?  Well Mom has this condition called Lymphedema which requires her to wear compression sleeves and gloves.  The gloves are $125 a piece.  I don’t know what got into me but I ate one early in the morning while Mom was still asleep…..  Here it is, I chewed off the thumb and 2 fingers.

Below is what an unchewed glove looks like:

Mom was not pleased.  I had to listen to 5 minutes of her explaining to me what a bad puppy I was and how the gloves were off limits and how my puppy chow is $50 per bag and perhaps she would take the cost of a replacement glove out of my puppy chow money but then she felt bad and said she wouldn’t do that BUT might deny me some treats…… blah blah blah blah…..

Then she looked at her email and her brother, my beloved Uncle Sam, had gotten her a gift certificate for this same Lymphedema garment site.  This was that very same morning, perhaps even at the exact time I was munching on her glove.  I am sure me and Uncle Sam have an ESP relationship.

THANK YOU UNCLE SAM!  (Uncle Sam, Mom is still giving me treats!)

 

LympheDivas Helping me cope with Lymphedema

Not a tattoo but a compression sleeve and glove to combat lymphedema.

Lymphedema was caused by damage from my cancer treatments.  I have to wrap my arm like this every night, applying compression to my arm to keep the accumulation of lymph fluid from swelling my arm into a scary huge mess:

Compression is 24-7.  During the day it is sleeves and gloves.  The sleeves and gloves suggested by my physical therapist are the same color and ugly as heck.  Note the seams on the fingers, makes typing a chore.

Discouraged I scoured the internet to find alternatives.  Ta-da!  LympheDivas, a comfortable and fun alternative.

Just working up the courage to wear one of these:

Email to Senator Cory Gardner

This picture from his website

Re: S.497 – Lymphedema Treatment Act

Dear Senator Gardner, I have recently been diagnosed with lymphedema caused by damage from my cancer treatments. The supplies I need every month to keep my condition under control are not an option. Without those supplies my condition will progress and become worse. With the supplies I can keep my condition under control. My insurance covers none of the cost of of these supplies. This makes no sense! People with conditions such as high blood pressure or diabetes get help from their insurance with the things they need to keep their condition under control. I’ve paid my insurance premiums for over 40 years now and until I got my cancer and now this lymphedema I barely used my insurance. Now that I need it, it’s not there…. How disappointing. Please reconsider your position on this important issue and review this proposed Act again with my comments in mind. I still work full-time, and have been able to adjust my budget to pay for my necessary supplies to keep my lymphedema under control. I just wonder about people who are on such a tight budget they let their lymphedema get out of control, what happens to them. Or the young family whose child gets diagnosed with a form of lymphedema and they have to find a way to pay for that child’s supplies. I hope you are able to read my email personally and not one of your staff. I would love to hear from you if you have any information that you would like to share with me. Thank you for your time today, Paula Matsumoto.

Do I sound annoyed?   Colorado’s Senator Michael Bennet and Representative Diana DeGette are cosponsoring this Act and are on board.

Got an automatic email response.  Hope to get a real one some day.

Lymphedema Treatment Act

Imagine you are told you have a condition that requires lifetime treatment.  The supplies you need are simple, some are expensive, but necessary to control your condition.  And then you find out your treatment supplies are consumed very quickly and must be replaced constantly.  And none of those supplies are covered by insurance.  And finally you realize if you don’t pay for all these supplies your condition will deteriorate and get worse.

There are many causes of lymphedema.  It touches people of all ages.

http://lymphedematreatmentact.org/

 

Lymphedema is Forever

 

You can’t cheat lymphedema.  It can affect a famous actress, different cancer survivors, the soldier who suffered a terrible trauma, a child with a genetic or inherited issue.  It’s with you forever. Don’t follow your treatment? Serious complications will follow.

I will need to wrap my arm like this every night for the rest of my life.

Some of the supplies I need every day, these are a just a portion and these  along with the rest are not covered by my insurance, there are much more not pictured here.  I spoke with my physical therapist about why some people let their lymphedema get out of control. Came to light that perhaps they could not afford all of the supplies.  Homeless?  Have to choose between your lymphedema supplies and paying your rent or mortgage or groceries?   The truth is my insurance pays for none of the supplies I need to keep my lymphedema under control!  They pay for a portion of one sleeve and glove each year that is my daytime therapy (I’ll need at least 2 or 3 each year minimum if I am really careful).  I am not alone, another lymphedema sufferer I know is in the same boat as I am. We both have jobs so we are not going to sink but that boat next to us is sinking.

I am getting my lymphedema under control and was just measured for my first sleeve and glove that I’ll wear during the day.   My insurance is not covering all of this and the supplier called me to make sure I knew my out-of-pocket was quite hefty and not part of my deductible and I was responsible for this uninsured portion.