Felicia Mitchell is a survivor of stage 2b HER2-positive breast most cancers recognized in 2010. Make amends for all of Felicia’s blogs right here!
My relationship with lymphedema has been extra difficult than my relationship with the mastectomy. Whereas I’m much less careworn about managing lymphedema than I used to be when first recognized throughout most cancers remedy, it has made me extra self-conscious than having just one breast.
I shouldn’t complain. My lymphedema, regardless of the occasional lapse as with some overuse final summer time and a foul climate second the opposite day, is nicely managed. I’ve even over time realized to let myself be seen in sleeveless shirts every now and then, particularly after I must take off an overshirt on a sizzling summer time day’s hike (however then I put it again on to keep away from an excessive amount of solar). I’m who I’m.
The opposite day, nonetheless, I skilled some self-pity after I needed to scrape ice and snow from the automotive in 11-degree climate to get to a health care provider’s appointment. My poor proper hand grew numb instantly, regardless of gloves, so I acquired within the automotive and held it till it warmed up so I might get again out and end scraping with solely my left hand. Sitting within the automotive after that, I burst into tears.
Later within the day, feeling susceptible, I made a decision to spend an hour in an vintage barn I generally wander via to clear my head. Not an enormous shopper, I’ll purchase presents comparable to a kids’s e-book printed in 1945 or a tiny painted vase or a trinket to adorn a knitting challenge. Some days I simply meander, misplaced in thought on this museum of the previous.
Checking the jewellery cupboard for a pin that may complement a knitted cap, I discovered myself coveting a bracelet I had checked out many occasions and handed over. I’m at an age after I don’t want extra jewellery and in reality donated the majority of superfluous items to a charity thrift retailer. I don’t want bracelets both as a result of, if I wish to put on one for an important day, I’ve just a few that belonged to my mom.
This bracelet I had checked out many occasions was a scarab bracelet, one thing I needed after I was a younger lady however couldn’t afford. Observing it in psychological restoration from the morning’s minor ordeal, I requested the clerk if I might strive it on. I attempted it on. Despite the fact that it price $30, I might have spent it on one thing sensible or a present for any individual else, I purchased it to provide to myself for my 69th birthday. In fact, I Googled it too to see if $30 was cheap; it was greater than cheap.
As quickly as I acquired house, although, I noticed that the bracelet would simply fall off my left hand, the hand that I all the time use for bracelets. No worries, I believed, going via a psychological checklist of individuals I might give the bracelet to. Or I might donate it to a charity white elephant sale. Then I had a thought. The bracelet was so fairly. What if I attempted it on my proper and larger wrist?
It match like a glove on my lymphedema limb, although unfastened sufficient to not impede any lymph move. So now, carrying it, I bask within the glow of one thing fairly to remind me of a silver lining I by no means needed. When the gorgeous scarab stones relaxation on my hand, I see them and never a hand that’s impaired. I see a hand I’ve handled like a nagging reminder of most cancers being honored with one thing lovely. I start to know why some most cancers survivors need tattoos.
My scarab bracelet goes with all the things: denims, leggings, no matter I placed on, as a result of it goes greatest with lymphedema. Greatest $30 for retail remedy I ever spent.
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