Lymphedema

Hi, Merry Christmas to you all.  This February I had a mastectomy, and 13 nodes taken out of my right arm, these past few weeks my arm has started swelling up with lymphedema.  I went to the hospital and started having physiotherapy/lymph drainage and having my arm put into a massaging sleeve - its not helping, its getting bigger, and I can feel it as thought my arm is filling up throughout the day - what else can I do?? will it ever go down again? Is there a special diet that I can do?  Any advise will be sincerely welcome.

Best wishes,
Hazel

[katarina777]

I read your post and am really sorry you are having to deal with the lymphedema. I don't have any advice but am glad your health care providers are at least recognizing your problem and talking it seriously. I think it is good that you are doing the PT, but sometimes one may also be more helpful then another. Are you happy with your PT therapist? otherwise you may want to try someone else. It is though a difficult problem to treat, and I hope you will get better. kat

[japdip]

Hi Hazel ... I remember you quite well. Sorry you've developed LE. You are wise to have gotten into treatment right away. It's a long process once you have it. You're treating it correctly but this is a chronic condition and unfortunately there is no cure. In addition to the treatment at the Hosp. PT Dept. have you been advised of things to do at home?  I was taught the massage methods and although my case was mild in comparison I wore both a compression sleeve and glove before and after the massage treatment. These things of course should be on the advice of your Therapist but the  treatment needs to be rather aggressive. I wish I could tell you that you would see marked improvement in a short time but that's just not the way it works with LE.   Hang in there Hazel; patience is the name of the game with this condition.