Hello all! It has been a while. I hope everyone is doing alright.

I am in college now, in central NY. It has been quite an experience trying to navigate my health from a new place.

I just got a new diagnosis: Milroy's Disease. My ankles swelled up and originally I thought it was my juvenile idiopathic arthritis flaring. I called my doctor and she had me go on a double daily dose of naproxen to reduce the swelling. For some reason that didn't work, so she requested that we do a video call so she could see my ankles. She saw the swelling that was going on (more in my right ankle than my left) and she felt like something was off. She had me press on my ankle and see if I left a fingerprint and weirdly enough, it did. In the end, she said she was pretty sure it was lymphedema, but wanted to make sure.

She sent me to my college's health center for bloodwork and sent me to have an ultrasound of ankles. Crazily enough, the hospital here told me over the phone that "They don't have the proper equipment for that." I was like, "It's just an ultrasound..." But the hospital apparently doesn't have equipment to do sonograms 😅 This concerns me, not gonna lie. I know this is a small town, but I assumed that any town in a developed state like NY would have ultrasound machines. I stand corrected. In the end, I had to shlep across town to go to an imaging center that thankfully DID have an ultrasound machine, and I got one done.

The scan showed that I have inflammation of the soft tissue (lymphedema) but no synovitis (arthritis inflammation). This was both reassuring and concerning. It's reassuring because that means that my Enbrel is still working and I am still in remission :)) but it concerning because I now have a whole new health condition. It makes me sadder that this condition doesn't have a medication or anything that can make my symptoms go away or put them in remission. I did get compression socks, which are helping with the swelling and some of the pain. It just frustrates me that whenever I make progress in one area, I seem to have something else crop up elsewhere. Why is my body so broken?!

Anyway, I'll stop complaining. I am doing quite well in school TG, and my other health issues are pretty well controlled. My GERD is flaring a bit (probably because of my food choices here), but my IBS is stable. I've been fatigued, but my doctor encouraged me to exercise when it comes upon me instead of taking a nap, and it's been helping for the most part.

I hope you all are well and would love to hear from you 😘 Sending love and hugs!

#Lymphedema #MilroysDisease #ChronicIllness #ChronicPain #MentalHealth #Depression #Anxiety #Disability #chronicmigraine #RheumatoidArthritis #JuvenileIdiopathicArthritis #JuvenileRheumatoidArthritis #Arthritis #Pain #Swelling #relief #College #collegehealth