Unanticipated Controversy

Fourteen years ago, my wife and I purchased an above ground pool along with a Hot Springs Prodigy Spa or Hot Tub...  a year or so later, I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's "B" Cell Lymphoma and a year or so after that, I experienced a rather serious heart attack that caused the surgeons to want to perform a triple bypass...  a second recommendation and I was left with the option of installing 5 stents instead.  A couple of years after that, I was diagnosed with Melanoma that later moved to my groin and and a sentinel biopsy was perform resulting in the removal of lymph nodes and my left leg experience lymphedema...

All of these conditions are not necessarily conducive to spending time in a Hot Tub, let alone spending in a Hot Tub several times a week...  and yet, that is exactly what I have been doing for the last 14 years.  Oddly enough, my time in the hot tub does not seem to be adversely effecting any of my conditions...  at least not yet...   but, with that said, I am not spending as much time in the hot tub as I used to spend.  And, when the weather gets warm, I turn the temp down from 104 to 98 or 95...  I still get the benefits of a heated massage.

However, one issue that I did not anticipate was the fact that as I age, it gets more and more difficult for me to lift my leg over the side of the hot tub in order to lift and pull my body inside...  and,  it is increasingly more difficult for me to reverse the procedure when extricating myself out of the hot tub.  

I have built myself a little bench, but I have it too high, so I need to cut it in half or possibly more than that in order for it to become a helpful too/aid.

Too Much Time Sitting

 My wife and I just got back from spending 6 days in Destin, Florida and were able to sit in lounge chairs under an umbrella and watch the waters of the Gulf of Mexico crash into our southern borders.

It took 8.5 hours of drive time to reach Destin from our East TN home plus some additional time sitting in the car or moving slow because of construction, traffic, or an accident so each leg of our driving took about 10 hours to get down there and about 10 hours to get back.

About 8 years ago I had foot surgery to remove a melanoma tumor from the bottom of my left foot and in the process, the surgical oncologist also removed 3 lymph nodes from my groin that had tested positive for cancer as a result of a sentinel node biopsy being performed before the surgery.  Consequently, I experience lymphedema in my left leg which under normal circumstances is very manageable and does not require me using a compression stocking even when I spend every other night in the hot tub for 45 minutes.

However, when I drive long distances or fly in an airplane over two hours at a time, my left leg, around the foot and the ankle swell.  I usually remember to wear a compression stocking when flying but forgot to wear one in our drive to and from Destin.

Now that I am back home, my left lower leg is again swollen from our journey in the car and it will take several days for it to return to normal.  My concern is that one day after forgetting to wear a compression stocking my left leg swells and will not return to normal...  once this happens, my entire lifestyle will change.

Once we arrived at Destin, my left leg did return to normal after a couple of days...  so, I am hoping the same thing will happen now that we have returned home.

Returning Home

One of the pitfalls, at least for me, of going to Myrtle Beach is that my ankles swell and what makes it worse is that a few years ago, I have 3 lymph nodes removed from my groin which caused lymphedema to settle into my left leg so when it swells, it does so more than it normally would...  this is bad because at some point-in-time, summer heat at Myrtle Beach could not just make my lymphedema worse but could result in my being put into a situation where I constantly have to keep my foot elevated.

If my wife did not like coming down to Myrtle Beach so desperately, I would not be here...  and, sending her down here with someone else defeats the whole point of being married...