habits
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Pushing through
I’m starting to understand that living with reduced mobility means that you have to be a problem-solver, every day and sometimes minute to minute. I’m also realizing that I have been letting my circumstances dictate too much of my daily routine, and I have to start pushing through the obstacles to live a more normal Continue reading
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A significant purchase
I tend to be the kind of person who uses stuff until it falls apart, and makes do with approximate solutions instead of buying the ideal, but every once in a while I quit looking with alarm at my dwindling retirement funds and do something big for myself, and this week is witnessing one of Continue reading
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Adjusting
It’s been a couple of years now of worsening symptoms and issues, and I am still not understanding how people do this. I mean, there are people with much worse disabilities than mine, who are still working full-time and keeping things together, so why am I finding this so ridiculously hard? I’m used to being Continue reading
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Brain fog…
The biggest enemy of self-care when it comes to lipoe-lymphedema isn’t physical tolerance so much as mental disposition. Yesterday was a good day, and I was able to think clearly enough to come to the realization that I have fallen down on the job and my recent poor physical response is a result of that. Continue reading
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A new voice heard from
On the advice of the ever-up-on-it Kirsten, I scheduled a one-hour Zoom consult that took place yesterday with a Naturopathic doctor currently out of Texas named Dr. Melissa Gallagher. She is a lymphedema expert (Vodder-trained Certified Lymphatic Drainage Therapist) and is also knowledgeable about and able to provide advice on the foibles of lipedema. I Continue reading
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Magic beans…
Tuesday night at 8:30 p.m., my Lympha Press package arrived via UPS. I wanted to wait until I was clear-headed and in daylight to read the directions and figure out how to set it up, so I got up yesterday and unboxed everything. There was a lot of paperwork that I fortunately don’t have to Continue reading
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And now I wait.
Kaylin showed up on Wednesday with the correct size and model lymphapress (plus the extensions) for my right leg, and I was finally able to have my test. The sensation is not unpleasant—there are chambers inside the envelope and, starting with the foot, it inflates and squeezes in an eight-part series up the leg to Continue reading
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In which I rant a bit…
The saga of the squeezie pants continues. The company who makes them sent the lovely Kaylin (yes, Gen Z, 5 feet 10 inches in heels, thin, blonde, a little ditzy, and wearing a fabulously chic black pantsuit) out on Monday to perform the Medicare requirements, which are to take measurements of the leg(s), put the Continue reading
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I’m up…
I came across this meme recently on Facebook and immediately saved it for myself. Although I am not Norwegian, I completely agree with their sometimes low standard for daily check-ins: Things have transpired, some good, some bad, some that just are, since I last posted. The visiting physical therapist with whom I had a conversation Continue reading
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A mixed bag
These home health care services from Medicare have been a mixed bag of bandages, advice (good and bad), and more weird requirements. I have a nurse visiting every other day, who photographs whatever open wounds I have (several are finally healing up, despite still being horribly swollen) and then bandages and wraps my right leg, Continue reading
About Me
I started this blog to talk about a genetic, fibrotic fat-storing (some say autoimmune) condition called Lipoedema, which is something I began to experience in my 60s, although some see early onset at puberty, or post-pregnancy, or at menopause. The other “L” condition from which I suffer is Lymphedema, as a common secondary effect of the fibrosis that blocks lymphatic drainage. Despite the fact that one in 11 women suffer from lipoedema, most doctors have never heard of it, so on top of the pain and embarrassment of this extremely obvious malady, millions of us are out there being fat-shamed for a condition that isn’t contingent on diet or exercise for its growth. This blog was intended to share my reactions.
I have, however, reserved the right to discuss “other stuff” here and, increasingly, since January 20th, 2025, that is politics, because what else, after all, are we legitimately obsessed with in this age of fascism in these United States of America? So while the “theme” of this blog may be confusing, it is my blog, where I can talk about whatever I wish. You are not constrained to read the parts you don’t like. But I feel compelled to write about them.
MEdoubleLL 