bountifulplate

This past Wednesday, Dominic and I went to the Kroger to do some grocery shopping. He has become very helpful and I continue to use our Kroger outings as educational "field trips." He uses different skills such as problem solving, following directions and one of the most important ones, PATIENCE !! The past couple of times we have gone to Kroger , after we load up the van with our groceries, I have let Dominic take the empty cart back to the cart "corral." He usually walks right back to the van without incident. Not this time. He decided to run into the parking lot. I immediately yelled, "Dominic, get back here! You know better than that!" I was angry, but remained calm after he got in the car and we headed back home. I told him at least three times to never do that again . Hopefully, he "received," my message loud and clear. Will there ever come a day when I don't have to keep my Autism "radar," up??  As he has gotten old...

I have always admired Kathy Bates for her amazing acting ability, but when I heard her speak out about her experiences with lymphedema recently, it made me admire her even more!!! I found a video from when she was on the show, " The Doctors ," where she shared her story about living daily with lymphedema. As I listened to her, I realized many of her experiences were similar to mine and it made me feel a lot less alone .  I noticed swelling in my calf and particularly in my foot shortly after my operation for my Stage 1B Malignant Melanoma in March of this year. As the weeks went by and I continued to recover and slowly return to "normal," I remember thinking to myself, "why is my thigh, knee, calf and foot so swollen?" "The surgical oncologist only removed two lymph nodes from my groin." I decided to make an appointment at the beginning of May at the Melanoma Clinic and discuss the swelling with them in person . The gal I saw there ...