Hello all. I am looking or some advice with a situation I am having. For the past couple years I have been dating someone with lymphedema. It was not disclosed to me when we first had started dating of her situation the symptoms werent as prevalent as they are now. Her grandmother has it though not bad, her mother has it from breast cancer, and my girlfriend was born with it. From my understanding it is different if youre born with it rather than a side effect of cancer treatments. Over the this time I have been with her to a couple different doctors, watched videos, read articles and forums, learned as much as I could about the disease and how to control it.
Her personal relationship with her mother is not great but her mother seems to maintain her symptoms well, eating right, drinking plenty of water, stays active, compression. It appears to be mainly in her hands and left forearm. My girlfriend on the other hand is terrible with dealing with the swelling. To me she acts like if she just ignores it that it will just go away but uses it as an excuse to not do things. In the past 2 years The difference in her legs noticeable. Her diet is not very good, chooses pop over water every chance she can, she HARDLY EVER wears her compression stockings, and lies about keeping her legs wrapped and when she does its not tight enough and only goes up her leg mid shin. In the time weve been together ive never seen her hands or arms wrapped.
Its has reached a point of frustration with me. I spent alot of money on her compression stockings (and yes they were professionally measured), ill spend hours every week massaging the fluid in her legs and feet just for her to not help maintain them. It has been cause for many arguments. Im at a loss of were to go and how to make her see that this isnt going anywhere and they worse she lets it get the harder everything is going to be.
If anyone has any thoughts or comments good or bad please feel free to share. Thank you for your time.
