I am New Here

I live in California

by Crissy 2000

I was born with Lymphedema of my right leg. My mother was told that I would get gangrene and not live past the age of one year if I didn't have my leg amputated. My mother chose to take a chance and luckily, my doctors were wrong.

I have tried the pump, and ace bandaging but nothing really works. I grew up getting cellulitis every year. My childhood was very difficult and I never had any friends. That has caused me to be withdrawn and shy. I longed for friends but some people are so very uncaring and not very understanding. I never dated in high school. I was a freak. At the same time, my family was going through a lot of dysfunctional problems as well. I just tried to study hard and get the heck out of school.

I have tried to further my education, but I ended up getting cellulitis. Eventually, I had met someone and I had a kid, but things didn't work out. So, now I am disabled and I have a generic type of medical insurance through the state of California. It doesn't allow me to be able to do MLD because this is primarily done by nurses.

I have tried wrapping it in ace bandage, but it is hard to do it on my own. So, I just try to stay of my leg as much as possible, although I have a 5 year old son that keeps me busy. I find myself feeling sorry for myself a lot and I know that I am better off than some others, but I still hate having this.

I have had it since birth but I have hardly talked about it and I am very uneducated about it. I really thank the people that make these web sites that allow people with lymphedema to have a place to talk to others with it. I have never known anyone else with it until recently. I feel better already just knowing that there are people out there that have experienced the same type of things as myself. I hope everyone who reads this will take a moment to e-mail me. Just to say hi, or tell me your life story. I hope all is well. Thanks for listening.

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Category: Living well with Lymphedema