It’s now three weeks since my unilateral mastectomy
operation and here’s my progress report...
In terms of energy levels: I’m surprised how well my body
has bounced back. We had flights booked
just one week after the op which seemed rather optimistic but I coped
reasonably well and, after a quiet few days, I’m now doing lengthy day trips
with lots of walking. No problem at all.
The scar is healing up well – I was lucky enough not to
suffer from any swelling. I think the
area of sensitive skin on the back of my arm may have shrunk and similarly the
area of total numbness on my chest seems smaller. Perhaps that’s just me getting used to the
weirdness.
But, and this is really bugging me, I still have very
restricted mobility with my arm. I can
move it reasonably freely below shoulder height but lifting my arm above
shoulder height at the side is painful, so things like putting my hair up is
still depressingly difficult (especially as my hair is now way too long and I
don’t want to waste time on a haircut – just a few more weeks and the whole lot
will fall out anyway).
Before anyone tells me I should be doing my exercises, I
should add that I am exercising my arm all the time. Yes, I may be sitting in bars drinking the
local plonk, but I am also doing shoulder arms circles (more than once the
waitress has come to take my order as a result). When in the car, I am sitting with my hands
behind my head (sounds good, but my chin has to practically rest on my
chest). And my children laugh at me
doing the ‘train’ motion with my arms as we walk (actually, so do the other
tourists).
Every time I exercise for any length of time, my arm loosens
and I make progress. Then a few hours
later I do the same exercises...and find I am back at square one. I can feel a tight cord in my armpit when I
lift my arm and it currently doesn’t seem possible that I will ever stretch
that cord enough to allow full mobility
again.
I guess I just need to keep the faith...and keep exercising.
No comments:
Post a Comment