What Else is New?

I got a glove and a sleeve for my swollen hand, but honestly, I think it makes it worse. I think the glove is too tight around the wrist and so it actually increases the swelling. The only time it works well is when I’m riding my bike. I think this is due to the pressure on my palm from gripping the handlebar.

In addition to the massage, the physical therapist began putting my hand in this sleeve/pump contraption for thirty minutes when I went for the therapy. It's kind of like a blood pressure cuff except it covers the whole arm including the hand. It has air chambers all the way up that fill with air in succession to squeeze the lymph from your hand up your arm into your torso. My problem is so chronic that I got one of these to use at home pretty much daily. It’s such a relief and my hand does seem to be getting better. Luke calls it Big Blue. I’ll get him to take a picture and post it and you’ll see why. I use this thing for about an hour a day. It's pretty quiet, considering, so I can watch TV or read while I'm pumping.

I’m still supposed to wrap my hand every other day or so. I can’t sleep in the bandages, though. It cuts off something and causes a sort of pain or discomfort or … well I don’t know the words to describe what it feels like. It’s a feeling that things are not quite right, as if my body is communicating that it’s dangerous to lay down with the bandages on my arm pinching … I don’t know what. I know that doesn’t exactly make sense, but if you felt this you’d understand.

We had our annual Christmas Festival yesterday. The weather finally turned cold, but not freezing, so it was perfect. The live music was great and the fireworks show was probably the best we've had in a number of years. They combined music and a light show with the fireworks. They’ve had music play with the fireworks before, but the sound system wasn't that great and it was never quite in sync. This year the sound was spectacular, the lights, the music and the fireworks were on the money. It had me laughing with delight through the whole show.