New here,

[memetime0029]

Hello everyone,

Just wanting to say hi and hopes to get to know some of you. I enjoy chatting with people of the same interest and health issues as I do. I have Lymphedema in both legs, 2 extremely bad painful knees that need replacing but no surgeon will touch me due to a previous blood clot. I know this is not a craft group but its a topic I enjoy to help take my mind off the pain and loneliness. Feel free to say hello. This is my cat Mia, she is a service animal like dogs are to some but she is a cat.

[AnneBury]

Hello. You say your cat is a service cat. I am interested to know what she does. Thanks.

[memetime0029 in reply to AnneBury]

Mia, my cat is by my side every minute. She calms me when I get stressed out or if I get upset. If I get sick she will start meowing and go in and out my room until my husband comes to see what's wrong. She is very protective of me esp if she does not like someone but most times she is pretty sweet.

[lizmurphy61]

Hi and welcome to the group great lot on here great for answering questions I have lymphedema in both legs not long diagnosed it has taken me a while to get my head round it.I had so many questions about it and have had them all answered on here

[DeadfootMo]

Hi I'm new here. Love your cat. I too have a cat. I also have Lymphodemia in both feet. I also have quite large legs due to being overweight. Recently my knees have started to give me pain but the worst pain is in my feet, especially after a long day at work. I am naively thinking that getting my feet back to normal is a possibility if I lose masses of weight and make time to exercise. My problem started about 5 or 6 years ago when I weighed approximately 15 stone and went on coach holidays. If I'd booked a holiday and travelled by coach by the time I reached my holiday destination, i would have really swollen feet and as such they used to take a good day to go down. The last 2 to 3 years though any swelling in my feet seems to be with me all day, most of the time they do go down overnight and my feet then look all wrinkly. However, it is not long before they are swollen again full of water. I have known the pain in the summer be so bad that I would feel better crawling around on my knees. Just now though in the winter they are tight, with pins and needles and the feeling that my feet have permanently been to the dentist.

[memetime0029 in reply to DeadfootMo]

Mila is like my little radar, lol. I have to sleep in the guest room in a hospital bed, my husband sleeps across the hall in our king bed. Until we can afford to buy the split king electric bed I'll have to stay in my separate bedroom . My husband and I have been married 39 years and have not slept apart but very few times so when I had to move out of our master bedroom into the guestroom that was the hardest thing I've had to do since getting lymphedema .

[Hertsfem in reply to DeadfootMo]

Do you take any water tablets at all. I find my legs don't feel so tight if I take them regularly.

[DeadfootMo]

I have also had two falls recently the first about 5 months ago when attending a job interview. Afterwards I was that desperate for a cuppa I rushed towards Wimpy or Burger king and tripped going up stairs with the weight of my briefcase bringing me down on one side. On this occassion, I had pain swelling and bruising on the inside part of my knee and shin. The second fall was Monday gone walking between one college building and another, I tripped on uneven pavings and fell really heavily on one side again with my heavy briefcase, typical I though first day in a new part-time teaching job and I'm falling. This latter fall is by far the worst of the two I have had as I have massive bruising on the outside of my left leg and something has happened in the ankle joint re sinews etc. On Monday of course I didn't report the accident and as what was a 4.5 hour teaching job out of my area, this meant not getting home until 8 pm in the evening when I had been away from my home from 7 am, I was in no mood to go to A & E. This Monday a full week later I will try and get a doctors appointment, as I don't want a completely dead foot, but again it will have to be when I get home from work and possibly around tea-time. It is worrying for me as this is the leg and foot that in 2015 had an infection called Cellulitis. that was treated by antibiotics for 10 days on a drip. Where the Cellulitis came from I have no idea to this day all I know is that one day I was walking around and the next I wasn't able to.

[Hidden]

Hi, welcome to the gang wonderful lot on here anything answered. I have pitting edema in both legs below the knee and lymphoedema in both legs above the knee but only diagnosed in Aug last year.

[memetime0029 in reply to Hidden]

Thank you for such a warm welcome to the group . I just wish it wasn't a group where we all suffered with such a debilitating disease and no cure . My legs have gotten worse over the last six months and especially my knees and I'm so scared that one day my knees are going to collapse and I will not ever be able to walk again . I start school in May and I'm just wondering how I'm going to be able to set in class for hours with my legs down without them throbbing and swelling especially my knees . Then after I finish school and my gonna be able to hold a job down in an office where I have to sit with my legs down all day I am so frustrated and seriously considering not going to school but I got my heart set on going to school and getting my Associates degree in medical coding but I have to go to school for certain classes rest I do online . I developed lymphedema little over a year and 1/2 ago and we have no idea where it came from no one in my family has ever mentioned it but I dropped 75 pounds in five months and losing the weight has helped a great deal I still have a lot to lose but I have never experienced anything so painful . I have seen several therapists here in the US where I live and they have done nothing but wrap me to where I couldn't get in and out of the bed even to go to the restroom so it didn't help and traveling 45 minute ride there 45 minute ride back on the bus in my wheelchair was the most painful and uncomfortable thing . My heart breaks when I read the stories of people that have it a lot worse than I do especially people that don't have any spouses family or any help . I am so blessed to have several very good friends my husband of course Mia I can't leave my precious Mia out. I know people don't think a cat can be a service animal but let me tell you Mia and my husband's cat Abby about service cats because when we get approved for housing they said no animals allowed and we had Abby and Mia for years and where we go they go so my doctor knew how much I they meant to us and how they help keep me calm and Abby keeps my husband's blood pressure down so he wrote a detailed letter to housing stating that both cats were considered service animals . The housing lady threw a fit because there was nothing legally she could do we had a doctors note that was required and after we were excepted and got ready to move in our apartment she made a comment about it was not fair that we were allowed to have two cats and I said to her you better be glad it wasn't a jackass that the doctor approved . Let's just say she didn't have any more to say about the situation , ha ha .

[Bluebird1977]

Hi I love your cat. I have just been diagnosed with Lyphodema following a bad fracture to my ankle in September. The pain is excrutiating. I also have several other health conditions. So I know how lonely it can be especially as i have no partner or family, I do have a kitten called Suzie who, I named after my sister who I sadly lost 5 years ago to cancer . I also have P.T.S.D. but have no support so it would be nice to chat with you.