SWELLING

Lying flat is one of the hardest things I do. I really can't sleep sitting up or propped up. The truth is that I don't get much rest because of a sleep disorder, but that is another area. The blood pooling into my upper body and not having gravity to feed it back makes me wake up with a swollen head - literally! My arms and hands are also quite swollen in the morning. After I'm up for a while this goes down some, but recently my arms have been more swollen. By arms, I'm really talking about my upper arm where there is the most venous engorgement. One arm is quite a bit larger than the other and this makes wearing clothes difficult. Nothing fits my big arms, so I am always in a top about one size too big for me. In the summer I just wear tank tops even though my arms are so big. It is more comfortable that way.

I keep wondering how other people deal with the problems involving swelling. I do take diuretics, but they don't help all of it. As the doctors say, "the diuretics are just palliative". We live with a difficult problem, but it sure beats the alternative.