Almost 33 years ago I was born on a fall day at the Swedish Covenant Hospital in Cook County, Chicago. Immediately, the doctors and nurses were concerned at the abnormal swelling in both of my feet. They thought it was Turner's Syndrome...and they told my parents I might be mentally retarded, short of stature, sterile, and a few other things. They thought this, because swelling in a baby's hands or feet was a telltale sign of Turner's.

But they were wrong. My parents discovered this 6 weeks later at the Michigan State University hospital.

For reasons we may never known on earth, the lymphatic channels in my legs were compromised. Immediately following my birth, the swelling in the left foot disappeared. The right foot has remained swollen to this day, with swelling spread into the ankle.

It's a condition that naturally worsens, and one of the main treatments - a boot pump - that doctors prescribed for me for several years, has actually been proven to make the condition worse.

In my 20s, 4 diagnostic tests showed no malformation or blockage in my lymphatic system. Why the swelling? It's still a mystery. I have never had control over this condition, doctors have never been very helpful, and insurance companies even less so.

I'm so thankful that I can walk, be quite mobile, and enjoy life...and at the same time, I'd love to have normal, beautiful legs. I have wondered sometimes at what point in my life I might become unable to get around on my own.

And yet...I hope. I hope because science may be able to help someday. I hope because God shows up in my life daily and reminds me that hope is entirely reasonable. Whether on earth or in heaven, I will dance on perfect legs someday with no pain, no pressure, no disfigurement.

Which brings me to my journey to Asheville. I will be visiting a holistic clinic that offers a daily two-hour lymphatic drainage massage. It might sound crazy, but I will lay there every day while a therapist very lightly massages every lymph node and lymph channel on my body. The therapist will decongest my upper body first, opening the way for the fluid to flow out of my legs. This is the way they've treated lymphedema in Europe for over 100 years. In the last 10 years this has also become the therapy of choice in the U.S.

So...you can pray that the therapist will be wise in knowing how to break up the fibrosis or accumulated lymph tissue in my ankle. That's the key to getting my lymphatic system to flow uninterrupted.

Thank you for sharing the journey. Starting September 4, you can check in for regular posts on my progress...and my adventures. Y'all come back now, ya here? :)