1/24/19: Lupron + Physical Therapy Appointment #16

Since I only needed a shot today, I expected to be in and out of my nurse appointment in a matter of minutes. It turned out to be almost half an hour, in a good way.

The medical assistant took my vitals as usual, then walked me to a bay.

I had to wait a bit for my infusion nurse, and then I was pleasantly surprised when my nurse took the time to ask me for an update on my hands feeling numb, tingly, puffy, and "tight". Not sure how to summarize all that into one word, as it's really all those feelings at once; I'll just say it feels "weird".

I've been paying close attention all week. I'm most worried when it feels like it's "asleep". This feeling can last as long as 20 minutes, and I get nervous about permanent damage. Even when the "asleep" feeling wears off, the "weird" feeling can last a couple hours.

Things I've noticed this week:

• Every morning I've woken up to one or both hands feeling weird or asleep.
• If my hands feel weird, using my cell phone before getting out of bed can trigger it to feel asleep. Not sure if this is related to my elbow bending, or my hands gripping the phone.
• If my hands feel asleep, the feeling won't go away on its own. I have to get out of bed, walk around, stretch and swing my arms.
• If my hands feel weird, actions like using a knife or a spatula while making breakfast will make it worse, including feelings of pain and weakness. I have to stop and shake my hands out before being able to continue.
• If I sleep with my forearms propped up on pillows, in a "natural" position, it's possible to wake up without my hands feeling asleep. But they'll still feel weird.
• Getting out of bed immediately to walk around, stretch and swing my arms, seems to help. I feel like I'm warding off the asleep feeling. 

My nurse said walking around might be helping with my blood and/or lymph circulation. She suggested having a kind of arm exercise routine to do first thing every morning. She also suggested asking my physical therapist if I should consider wearing some kind of sleeve, not exactly a compression sleeve, but maybe something like arm warmers.

So the shot itself took only a minute, and the rest of the time was spent talking about all that.

I had my physical therapy appointment right after, and basically went over everything again with my physical therapist.

My physical therapist figured it's nerve related. She stretched each arm in three specific ways to see which positions might trigger the weird feeling. It was hard to tell because my hands were still feeling weird from this morning's episode, but definitely a couple positions made it worse. She also moved my head and neck in specific ways, but none of those positions triggered any weird feelings.

She gave me "nerve glide exercises" to help release any pressure on my nerves. Not these exactly, but along those lines.

Regarding my nurse's sleeve suggestion, she said it probably wouldn't hurt to try it, but wearing something tight on my arms, and not my hands, might actually make my hands feel worse.

It occurs to me that if these problems are nerve-related, then maybe it's a side effect of the double mastectomy, not any of my medications. But why now, 5 months later? Maybe some nerves are having trouble growing back?

Anyway, my physical therapist also worked on my cording, and it helped a lot!

I have to say, I'm kind of annoyed at this "two steps forward, one step back" kind of progress. I'm moving forward in my treatment schedule, and my cording finally seems to be improving, but now I'm hit with this very concerning numbness and tingling and swelling in my hands.