Very much my own feelings! I'm lucky, I don't have much swelling so it's not noticeable. No infections, touch wood, in spite of doing stupid things with roses. I too get a few comments on my compression 'hand and arm' - in the mood, I just refer to it as my bionic arm! My terrific therapist keeps it under control and me amused, and I hear so much worse things on this site. I'd have taken those lymph nodes out too, they were signicantly enlarged and the one that was biopsied was malignant. So no quibbles from me about that.