Did you have lymphoedema at all through all of this?

I’d thought I had a touch of it before I went for the second operation. And now, I do have it now. Yeah, I do have it now. And I would say probably the lymphoedema bothers me more than the cancer bothered me. Because the cancer, I still have this thing that they can cure it. This is like an ongoing thing that…

Can you tell me a bit more about the lymphoedema, for any women who will be watching say for…?

Well the only, I think it’s, I mean a lot of it’s vanity I have to say. But I find now that certain blouses and jackets that I’ve got, I can’t wear anymore. And I know I should just accept things, but I get really frustrated by it. And it’s a bit, what I have found, and as I say it’s something I didn’t realise before with this reconstruction, because they pulled the muscle from your back. If I carry or like use a pulley in my left arm, I get backache on the right hand side. I suppose it’s the way your muscles work. But of course you’re not supposed to really carry anything or lift things heavy with an arm with lymphoedema.

But to be honest unless you’re, if you don’t, you know, you’re sort of like a little doll going around, you do use your arm and things. I think it’s just, it was something I could’ve done without and, as I say, it’s the little things that sort of make me feel unhappy or trigger me to feel bad. And the lymphoedema was just like, “I can cope with the cancer, why have I got to have this?” It’s like, that was a bit like, “Why me?” You know I don’t want it and it’s just the fact that it doesn’t actually ever get cured, so you’ve just got to be careful with it. And I mean, touch wood, mine seems to be sort of like stable, even though I don’t, I have to say, you know I’m not good at not using my arm and things. But you’ve got to sort of balance, I can’t keep using like one side all the time.

Were you given any advice on this?

There’s a very good lymphoedema clinic here, so I do, I go to see them sort of once every six months. So if I’ve got, if I get myself in a flap so I think, “Ah it’s getting bigger,” you know, I phone up. I’ll make an appointment, I’ll go down and they measure it, it’s like, “No, it’s not getting bigger you know.” Get a grip.
It’s just…

Did you hear anything about massage or anything like that?

I’ve got a sleeve that I can wear. I mean I have to go back to them because it’s really weird, and I’m quite tall and I’m not necessarily dainty. But I’ve got very small wrists and the sleeve they give you, none of them quite fit my wrist. And the size that’s smaller is too tight here. So they’re going to, talking about maybe getting a special sleeve fitted. But no, you can do like the lymphatic drainage, they show you how to do things like that. But it’s the sort of thing, if I get a bit sort of like fed up or down, it’s almost like I don’t do the drainage. And it’s like, I know I should but you just get into that, “Oh I’m fed up with it.”