Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Kris, Dave and the Lumps: Physical Therapy

Ok, lots of catching up to do:

Tuesday, 18-Nov-2008
Met with Dr. Kuisle. He was pleased with the lack of edema in the reconstructed breast. We noted that Kris had been squeezing it as directed and Dale had done lymph-edema work on it Monday. With that, he decided to leave the drain where it was, and said he'd remove it as a Thanksgiving day present.

We also went for our infusion of Herceptin and saw Dr. Moran. He confirmed that it's ok for Kris to have her flu shot, in fact he wants her to have it. He also increased her dosage of Warfarin as her 'I and R' got a tidge low at 1.2. He also took a look at her scars and reconstruction and generally gave his approval. I think I can quote him as saying 'that's the best looking 2 foot scar I've seen!' Which will give you a reference as to the size of Kris abdominal scar! She talked with him about returning to work and Dr. Moran is of the opinion that going back now would be pushing it. In no small part this is due to the simple fact that work at IBM is not something that can be done in 40 hour weeks. :)

Kris talked with her manager during the infusion and relayed with Dr. Moran had said. They decided that going to work this year might well be pushing things too hard. We'll still play it by ear since the question of going back part time is still on the table but, I think she has settled on starting work First of Jan.

Monday, 17-Nov-2008
Physical Therapy with Dale went smoothly. She did what she calls 'lymph-edema' work because Kris has a decent amount of fluid on the reconstructed breast. This work was trying to get the local tissue to use the lymphatic channels to remove fluid... specifically, the old channels that the new breast won't be used to yet... since the tissue came from her stomach area. Dale is actually quite impressed with Kris' progress with physical therapy and gave her some new stretches to perform... which are fun to watch. :)

Friday, 14-Nov-2008
Ok, details are fuzzy from here back but, she saw Dale and things went well with physical therapy.

Met with Dr. Kuisly afterwards and he removed all of the stitches, pulled out Kris drain a bit, then restitched the drain. He squeezed out what fluid he could, and instructed Kris to continue squeezing it as she can stand.

On a personal note, the site of the edema is quite hard which is disconcerting because the tumor she had two years ago was hard. All of the Dr.s agree that it's just edema but, I can't help but be concerned. :/

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