Ringing In The New Year

I haven't worn any rings since last March, before I had my lumpectomy. I was afraid to wear them because of the risk of lymphodema. Wouldn't it be awful to have to have your rings cut off?

Yesterday, while looking for a pair of earrings to wear, I saw my rings and decided to try them on. The only one I can actually get on is my Grandma's wedding ring, which I've worn with my own for as long as I've had it. My own rings, as you see, don't quite make it. I feel I could get them on, but I fear I'd have trouble getting them off again.

I tried them on my right hand and they fit there about the same as they used to ... quite snug compared to how they used to fit on my left finger. That tells me that it's not just these 7 or 8 extra pounds making the difference. It might be some slight swelling in my fingers as a result of surgery and treatments. I thought my left fingers looked ever so slightly bigger. I think I'll wait a while and see if they come down. Otherwise, I'll take my rings in and get them resized. The difference is quite slight so I'm not concerned.

By the way, this colourful, woven doily is one Hannah gave me this year for Christmas. It's so pretty and interesting. She found it in an antique store in Vancouver.

On another note, you might notice the band of darkness near the bottom of each of my nails. That's evidence of the damage to my system from the radiation. It's wider than the lines I got from each of my chemo treatments. They were narrower ... like someone had taken a red felt marker and drawn horizontal lines across my nails. The lines from each of my chemo treatments have almost all grown out now. I can still see one near the top of most of nails. My naturopath pointed them out to me and it was interesting to me that I could very distinctly count each of my chemo treatments on my nails.

Ringing In The New Year