I’ll give her one thing; I’ve been in
her shoes. And I wasn’t there any
longer. Oh, don’t leap to the conclusion
that I no longer have lymphedema, I do. Lymphedema
is a chronic condition. There is no getting over it. That was my first lesson because before I had
lymphedema I didn’t even know what chronic actually meant. In my mind chronic meant severe, or
serious. But it means forever. That’s the first hurdle I had to face. Forever is quite a bit to get used to.
My life is over – is how the first words
came out. Only in time was I able to
modify that to be ‘my life as I knew it was over’. And then only after much more time and huge
efforts both mentally and physically have I been able to say that ‘my life is
so much better now’. Not with any
qualifiers concerning lymphedema, but simply and absolutely better and that
directly because of my lymphedema.
One of my first realizations is that pain
is a powerful motivator. The story
started there for me, but no story is complete without an audience. So now I will tell you.
