Swelling? Scar tissue? ???

Bigfuzzydoug said:

You can learn do get rid of the lymphedema yourself.
http://www.ehow.com/how_2126778_get-manual-lymph-drainage.html

Most physical therapists can teach you. I do a self lymphatic massage every day in the shower (it takes about 10 minutes). I've noticed a dramatic improvement. You can get the fluid to drain away and the swelling to go down. The key is start from the bottom nodes and work your way up. If you start at the neck and haven't first flushed out the torso nodes, there's no place for the fluid to go to and it doesn't work.

Bigfuzzydoug said:

I had pretty bad fibrosis, swelling, "gobblers neck"
I also had L'Hermitte's Syndrome. The Oncologists all said it was a normal result of the radiation. The L'Hermitte's would go away within 3 years. The swelling in time as well.

Well guess what - I made the L'Hermitte's go away in 3 MONTHS! 90% of my fibrosis (scar tissue) is gone. And the swelling and thickening is gone as well! How?

My chiropractor who is also trained in physical therapy and neurological care and my sister a physical therapist! My chiro starting working on me earlier this year twice a week. The L'Hermitte's was caused by lymphatic fluid putting pressure on my upper spine. Neck adjustments and soft-tissue work to flush out that fluid. My sister taught me lymphatic massage which I do in the shower every day to push the fluid down out of my neck area.

Then my chiro starting working on my fibrosis. It looks very strange to anyone standing nearby as I'm on my back and he uses his thumbs to drive into my neck (looks like he's strangling me) as he breaks apart the scar tissue and seperates the cologen. Sometimes you can actually hear it pop and then melt away. I'm now seeing him just once a week. All the "thickening" is gone except for one last spot just above my Adam's Apple. I have full range of motion in my neck as well.

I'm not saying a chirpractor is for everyone and you have to find one who is properly trained. I was just lucky in that this chiro who is my wife's regular guy, when I described my symptoms, he knew that it was L'Hermitte's and knew what it was. It's so rare, that it told me quite a lot that he even knew the name. "Have you ever treated anyone with L'Hermitte's," I asked? "No. But I learned it in school and know how to treat it. But you gain nothing if we don't try. I'm not going to make anything worse. It's either going to work or it's not. But I would certainly like to give it a go. You're a very unique and rare case and I like that. I would like to keep track of your progress and maybe even write a paper about it afterwards. What do you say?" "Let's do it!!!" It may not be for your dad, but for me it's been a godsend.

My only point is that the Oncologists are mostly concerned with patients reaching the 5-year remission mark as a statistic. They do not talk about post-treatment care and simply accept the sife-effects with an, "at least you're alive" attitude. You don't have to accept this and feel that there's nothing that can be done. There can be post-cancer-treatment care!

Good luck!