Journal entry by Briana Delgado —
This is a quick update that I shared with people at work hence the improper capitalization spelling grammar, but this will get you the gist of what happened at Mayo.
Lymphedema dr was like, your lymphedema is actually REALLY good considering. they did a test on me where they measure the water in my arm to see if my bad arm is way worse than my good arm, and it was in the green! woo hoo! nothing more to do with him unless I need him. 2. Physical therapist who specializes in lymphedema. She also said i was doing great, but gave me some extra tools to put in my arsenal. so, a chip foam arm sleeve to wear at night, but as needed, or like once a week. no biggie, that will help move the lymph fluid up and out. and then a chip foam insert to have wrapped to my breast and wrap around my back area kind like a nike swoosh but no narrowing at the tip. and that will help to keep that areas lymph fluid moving and reduce infection and then break up the hardened area on my breast that i thought was scar tissue. nope, lymphedema. so yay. 3. next infectious disease. they told me to stop my antibiotic. no signs of infection, no need to be on it. scary! but i did. so if i get sick, it will be within the week. lol. also, if it does happen again, we'll need to do citology and pathology on that area in case something else is causing it all, like a cancer :( next day was breast clinic. 4. we talked about my concerns, my infection area feels fuller in the last week, moving forward, possible reconstruction next year, supplements to counter act pain from the anastrozole etc. she ordered an ultrasound so we could see if there was any fluid accumulation. She is setting up additional appointments for me with plastics, integrative medicine, weight loss to help treat me as a get me back to my old self kinda thing. she also scheduled an mri to see if they could see anything on the MRI like a new cancer etc like infectious disease implied to. and if nothing, it is a good baseline to have now after everything. 5. Ultrasound - i really was expecting the worst, but the area where they harvested the flap, the area that i had the drain for so long, it was like 2mm. YAY!!!! woo hoo! i'm so happy. so the ultrasound was so reassuring that everything really is ok and i can chill the f out and relax. still nervous about the antibiotics, but not having any fluid there is also great. so i go back around 3/10. so probably off 3/10-3/11.
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