A New Year – A New Challenge

What’s so new about this? Loads of people will have greeted the start of 2011 with good intentions, new goals and fresh motivation? Every amateur athlete knows how this feels; we all do it every year. Driven to achieve, we set ourselves bigger and better challenges. For me, this has taken on a different hue though as on December 14^th, after 18 months of intermittent swelling in my right leg, I was diagnosed with late-onset Lymphoedema. 

This is a condition that has no cure and if you really want to see the alarming consequences, just Google “lymphoedema” and click on “images”; I scared myself senseless doing just this.

The report of the lymphoscintigram scan that confirmed the diagnosis added to my fears, words like ‘grossly abnormal’ jumped out the page at me, as well as the additional blow that my left leg was also at risk of developing oedema at some stage in the future.

This blog is my journey, how I am dealing with the initial diagnosis and, over the coming months, my experiences trying to navigate the choppy waters of finding information, sourcing help and developing coping strategies. Some of you may find it helpful to read my story if you too are coming to terms with Lymphoedema, some of you who’ve gone through this may be able to help me, and others may just be curious.

A bit about me; I’ve been a competitive athlete for many years, a runner turned triathlete, turned marathon runner, and now re-invented as a cyclist when in 2007 an Achilles injury put an end to my running days. I don’t mind saying I was pretty good, as club athletes go, and have stayed competitive even well into my forties. You can see from the photos that I’m slight and in the last 20 years my weight hasn’t fluctuated much from an average 53kg. To be frank, yes, I have a strong fixation with body image, what athlete doesn’t?  This is the real heartbreak for me. I hate the thought of getting fat, I hate that I can’t conquer the swelling in my leg, and coming to terms with this is where my struggle will lie.  My performance has also tailed off in the last season, an additional blow. Nevertheless, exercise does help and if I had to choose between an ailment that meant I’d have to give up training or one where activity is encouraged, it’s not hard to work out which I’d opt for. 

The first day of the diagnosis, I immediately took positive action. I’d been told that exercise and compression were the best ways of controlling the swelling, but I was already doing both of these. Obviously the compression tights I was using were not powerful enough. I needed help and a good friend of mine, Simon at the TriStore in Eastbourne, was the first to the rescue. He recommended Zoot (www.Zootsports.com) compression recovery tights that are medically designed and boast a graduated degree of compression from 30-35 mmHg at the ankle to 18 mmHg at the waist. A swift order was dispatched. At least I felt I was doing something.

The second day I descended into an emotional well of self-pity. I alternated between anger and depression. Not a pleasant day.  Even rationalising how much better off I was than many people around the world didn’t help. I just wanted to feel sorry for myself.

The self-loathing didn’t last long though and with the help of my buddy and cycling coach at http://www.pbscience.com/, Dr Helen Carter, we started taking other lines of action. She made contact with experts in the fields of competitive cycling, sports science and medicine to see if there were other athletes with this condition. I started the process with my GP for a referral to my local Lymphoedema clinic and joined the Lymphoedema Support Network (LSN); a London based charity run by people who live with Lymphoedema that is the largest information provider about the condition in the UK. I signed up for every factsheet that I through relevant! If you’re interested, find out more here, http://www.lymphoedema.org/Index.asp.

Things got better when a few days later the factsheets from the LSN arrived and the tights from Zoot made it through the post despite a virtual standstill of deliveries caused by the worst winter conditions the UK has experienced for many years. It was quite a feat to get the tights on, but the difference they made straightaway has given me hope (thumbs up to Zoot, your tights DO live up to your marketing hype). Another friend, massage therapist Tracy, has helped to shift the swelling, and although the effect of this is temporary, it is sort of under control. There are still bad days, and I need to learn so much more, but I’ve taken the first baby steps in coming to terms with this horrible condition, and I’m sure not going to let it beat me. A new challenge but one I am equal to.