Travels with lymphedema
Miscellaneous / August 29, 2016

Good morning.  First of all, apologies to my regular book review readers.  This blog post is somewhat off topic, but I felt I wanted to write about it.  Feel free to skip it or pass on to someone who may find it interesting.  I will recommence regular book reviews shortly, I promise! I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it on this blog or not, but I have a condition called lymphedema which means that my lymphatic system isn’t great about moving the lymph fluid around my body.  This means that without management, it collects in my lower extremities leading to swollen, uncomfortable feet and legs.  Normally this is well managed by my compression stockings.  The other issue with lymphedema is the risk of cellulitis infection.  The lymph fluid is extremely protein rich, so it is basically an all you can eat buffet for bacteria.  If one gets in, it invites all its friends and the infection can go very bad very quickly.  That is what happened to me after my vacation.  I got an infection that sent me to the hospital for a couple of days for IV antibiotics.  Fortunately, I reacted quickly this time and was able to get…