Things are happening—some by chance, some purposefully, all fairly positive, some even hopeful.

First of all, I “met” Carol on Facebook in one of the lipoedema/lymphedema groups I follow, after she reported a seemingly miraculous transformation illustrated by pictures that were hard to believe. She, like me, has both lipoedema and lymphedema, and she, like me, had maximum swelling from her feet to her thighs. She reported that she had been in the house, basically, for six years, and was barely able to walk from the bedroom to the bathroom and back with the help of a walker. But when her husband got sick she realized that someone was going to have to take care of things, and started a two+ year quest to let that person be her.

She did not, however, opt for liposuction surgery. Instead, she experimented with various products and routines and ended up developing a regimen of wrapping her feet and legs with a product called Fabrifoam. Unlike short-stretch bandages, it’s a thin, gentle fabric that doesn’t have to be pulled super tight in order to function as excellent compression, which is important for people like us because of the pain factor—both conditions make your skin and the underlying tissue super sensitive when it’s excessively poked, prodded, or squeezed, which is a problem when compression is what you need. It’s easy to wear them all the time, which is what Carol did for 23 hours a day (with an hour off to have a shower and use her leg pumps).

The pictures she posted after two years were amazing. She, like me, had feet puffed up on top to three times their size, she had the giant lipoedema “lobules” of fibrotic fat that hang down behind the insides of the knees, and she also had lymphorrhea (drainage of lymph fluid through the skin) on the back of one ankle and calf, in worse condition than mine. She showed these “before” photos, and then showed the afters, in which her feet and legs were normal size and, most astonishing, her lobules were gone!

Carol was kind enough, when I reached out to her, to send me complete product information plus a couple of videos showing how to wrap my feet and legs properly. I sent away for some Fabrifoam rolls and, a week ago last Saturday, after going out to teach my first watercolor workshop of the library season, I started wrapping my feet and ankles and leaving my Beltwells on the legs from ankles to knees 24/7. (I am using the Beltwells while waiting for backordered Fabrifoam.) Why start then? Well, in order to go out, I have to cram my feet into tennis shoes so I have the stability to drive and walk around outside. This has been a chore, because I could barely wedge them in, and the laces would hardly stretch against the swelling. But, having my feet squeezed into shoes for a few hours would flatten them out temporarily, so that when I got home the swelling would be minimal. On April 13th, I used that fact as an advantage; the minute I took off the shoes, I put on the Fabrifoam wraps and left them on all the time on my right leg, only taking them off on the left to change my lymphorrhea bandages and then immediately renewing them.

Long story short, I had a doctor’s appointment yesterday, and was able to put on my thick diabetic socks and then pull my shoes on and lace them up without any problem—no tight heels, no bulging laces, and no pain—they looked like normal feet again! I feel like if I can get that kind of result in a little more than a week, the effort is well worth it to try to get back some of my mobility. Carol tells me the lobules will take a lot longer, but seeing hers makes me willing to do the work.

Carol has also experimented with various supplements containing amino acids, probiotics, etc., and has actually lost a significant amount of weight; I’m looking into some of those. But increased activity following the shrinking of her lymphedema was also a factor.

The doctor’s appointment yesterday was with a vascular specialist to see what can be done about my lymphorrhea, which has spread to a much larger area on my ankle and calf and has been worrying me for a while. I have avoided the typical pitfalls of infection or even sepsis to which so many succumb, but I’m fighting a losing battle to get rid of it, and decided I needed professional help. This doctor appears to be a good choice: He immediately came up with a new therapy, discussed my condition with me at length, made some recommendations, and promptly sent me to the lab for 10 different blood tests and a CTV. He agrees with me that there is a chemical imbalance that is causing all this excess inflammation (he thinks probably cortisol), which is such a relief after so many doctors have told me I was crazy, I was normal, and they had no clue what was wrong with me.

Finally, you will remember from my last post that I made a “priority list” of stuff that needs to get done in my life and in my house; and, as predicted, I made it and then forgot to look at it! Thank you, ADD! But I am happy to report that, when I decided to write this post and reread the last one first, I opened up the file and discovered that I could cross eight things off the list, some big and some small, some done intentionally and some from necessity/catastrophe. But however they happened, eight things! I’m happy with that. Here are some of them:

• Get clothes dryer fixed
• Get jacaranda tree trimmed…which led to…
• Get quotes for a new roof (it leaked after the tree was trimmed)
• buy a new evaporative cooler for summer (this will happen in coordination with getting a new roof in June)
• Find a vascular specialist
• Go to the lab for blood tests

Some of these are delayed because I just finished dealing with the last catastrophe that made me replace my stove and repipe my entire house, so financial prudence is a necessity. There are many more things to go, and more things to add, and it may take me a while to catch up…but I’m at least feeling hopeful, sometimes even positive, and able once again to maybe plan more for my future than sitting in my house quietly fading from memory!