Seeing the Surgeon

This is the day we go see the surgeon. Bob's appointment is this afternoon at 3:00. It will be interesting to see what he thinks about Bob's arm and hand. John, our son-in-law, has his own theory. He says the arm swelled after Bob started taking thyroid. Bob, on the other hand thinks it may be connected with his H1N1 shot.

He has been using the vibrator every so often and also using zinc ointment on it. It is not as large as it was last week. At least it wasn't last night. Bob says the swelling goes up and then comes down. Depending on what the surgeon says, he will see the physical therapist tomorrow at the hospital to be fitted for that compression sleeve.

I will go to my sister's this morning while my brother-in-law goes to breakfast with his friends. I leave at 6:45 and generally get back home by 9:00. He called last night to say I don't need to get out in the snow if I don't want to. He has a cell phone and if my sister should have a problem, she can always call him. I decided to go on. It's very difficult to carry on a conversation with someone with Alzheimer's Disease but she is my only sister and I feel I should go anyhow.

Slinky did not wake me up at all last night. I got up at 4:45 because I could no longer sleep but he was still sleeping at that time. Missy, on the other hand, had been scratching on the bed skirt for fifteen minutes. Animals!

I noticed after Slinky ate his breakfast, he lay down on the hard floor. I thought that was odd since he has his cushion in the utility area. I went to check it out and sure enough, Missy was lying on his bed. I moved her off but while he was outside doing his thing, she got back on it. I picked her up to move her again and she hissed at me. That cat is the most hostile animal I've ever owned. Yesterday, I moved her off the step stool where I sit at the bar in the mornings with my laptop. She hissed and scratched me trying to get down. So I am wearing two round band aids on my right hand now. Cats!

I will get back to this post with the doctor's opinion after we come home from the doctor's office this afternoon.

4:00 Later...

We saw Dr. Lin, the surgeon, this afternoon. He had seen the CT scan, the x-ray and the sonogram and said there was an enlarged lymph node that showed up but he could not feel it. It is about two inches in diameter. It is very deep in the armpit. He said if he went to biopsy it, it would require him to dig very deep into the armpit and he would do a lot of damage to the tissue to get to it. He does not think it is anything but some kind of clog in the lymph system. The sonogram showed it was not a blood clot.

He says the lymph nodes act as a kind of "oil filter" and filter out impurities from the body. He says it may take months to go down or it may never go down. He wants Bob to get measured tomorrow for the compression sleeve and he says that will help it to go down and at least treat the symptoms. Then we will watch it in the months to come.

He called it lymphedemia. That's water (or lymph fluid) under the skin in the lymph system.