LISANNE CASALINUOVO: And my leg just, within
two weeks time, it just kept growing, growing, growing, growing.
COMM: For 12 years, Lisanne has been living
with lymphedema - a swelling caused by blocked lymph vessels that made her right leg swell
up to three times its original size.
LISANNE CASALINUOVO: I had an original fall 10 years ago right in my kitchen and I broke
my knee cap and about a year or later, my leg started to swell. I always wore dresses
and high heels and I noticed one week that my leg looked larger than normal and a little
swollen. There I was saying, ‘Okay, why is my leg looking like this?’ I don’t
really know what I thought it was. I believed it was some kind of a minor swelling that
was going to disappear, same as it had come. My house was immaculate and I exercised every
day. Every month, more and more and more fluid; the more I’m sitting. So then I gained actual
real weight, you know; weight that I didn’t have before because I’m not moving.
COMM: The drastic size of her leg has made
it nearly impossible to exercise or even find clothes to fit both legs.
LISANNE CASALINUOVO: I’m on my bed a lot
because it’s the most comfortable thing for me. When I’m up moving around, it’s
awkward; it makes me very short of breath. Since, I was 14 years old, I weighed 110 pounds
and suddenly I was like 170 pounds and now I’m at 220 pounds. I don’t have any kind
of love life, like zero. I don’t date. I wouldn’t or even if somebody looked at me
I would think they are looking at me because of my huge leg.
LISANNE CASALINUOVO: My son lives with me, Taylor.
And he does take a huge burden off of me with helping me with, you know, the house and the
animals, the yard.
TAYLOR ASTIN: Just seeing what she is going through is difficult for any son or, you know,
daughter or anyone that has a mom going through something like this.
TAYLOR ASTIN: I mean she, she still, you know,
fights to try and do, like, activities, but it’s just so evident that everything she
does is a struggle.
LISANNE CASALINUOVO: I spent a lot of years with no help. So, I will not ever be cured
absolutely. If they had caught this in the very first, very, very beginning, like in the first
few weeks that it started swelling and, someone, I had gotten was someone who knew what they
were doing; yes, it could have probably even stopped at the very onset. It’s funny I
don’t even remember the word lymphedema.
LISANNE CASALINUOVO: The word ‘lymphedema’ needs to be out in this world, a lot more
than it is. I mean, it’s still very costly. It is what it is. I’m doing the best I can
with a really, really bad situation.
COMM: After years of struggling to find support for her condition, Lisanne finally found a
nurse who is able to help her manage her symptoms.
LISANNE CASALINUOVO: So, to hear that someone was gonna help me out I was thrilled. And
for the next four months we worked on this leg and she got it down significantly.
LISANNE CASALINUOVO: The swelling going down
on my bottom of my leg has made such a difference.
BRANDON ASTIN: I feel like, it may not ever get back to a normal size, but I feel like,
if she keeps up with the maintenance of it, she will be able to have a more of a normal
lifestyle and not feel afraid to go out.
KELLY ASTIN: I’m hopeful that she is going to, you know, get back to be able to put on
a regular pair of pants or wear the same shoes. Her nurse said that, you know, there is a
possibility she may be able to get her one foot with the lymphedema in it to, to be able
to put on a bootie in the winter, like something other than, you know, just the wrapping or
a slipper or something. She is so excited for that, you know, things, little things like
that, you know, lift her spirits.
LISANNE CASALINUOVO: I hope that my leg will go down to normal and that I...
I just want to get back to the little things. I want to go back to doing the things around my house
without looking at it as a chore and looking at it as a joy again like I used to.