De-ported/swelling

Rague said:

See a Certified Lymphademologist ASAP
Any swelling when nodes have been involved needs to assessed quickly. As it could be the start of LE . The sooner PROPER TX for you is started the easier it is to control. Lymphadema can raise it's ugly in any part of hand, arm, chest and in any combination of areas. For me my fingers are the only part that is not effected.

Ask your DR for a referral to a CERTIFIED Lymphedemologist. They are trained in identifing and dealing with it. PT's are not, though some like to pretend they are. Cerainly there are some PT's who are also Certified LE's but the vast majority are not. (My LE guy also has his Master's in Occupational Therapy). There are several things that can be done and work to different degrees with different people. Manual drainage massage, day compression garments, night compression garments and MLD machines.

There is no 'just buy a sleeve and glove off the shelf - they're all the same'. I've been dealing with quite a bit of it for almost 2 years now and we still don't have my custom gloves just right yet (I have weird hands - fingers are fairly short and are partly webbed) so the gloves cut into the skin between fingers. My sleeves are also custom as arms don't fit perfectly into off the shelf sizes either. My night sleeve turned out perfect with the first one. There are also different levels of compression and using the wrong one for you can do more harm than good. My first gloove was high compression and it just made it much worse for me light comprfession works best though I deal with a fair bit of it. I also have a MLD machine that I use for an hour every morning.

Please see someone who is Certified in treating LE as sson as possible - it doesn't get better on it' own but does get worse.

Thoughts and prayers.

Susan

VickiSam said:

Excellent .. Excellent advise,
and information - Susan. Thank you!


Vicki Sam

midnight10 said:

Ok
Getting de-ported was more uncomfortable than I anticipated and I still have a big--maybe 5 inches long bruise and some swelling. The surgeon said not to worry about swelling--again as long as my hand doesn't swell, especially since I'm a year out from masectomy/lymph node removal.
I haven't been on the site since I saw Susan's response because I had my granddaughter from Thursday until Sunday. We had a great time, but I was exhausted!
I looked at being deported as hopefully the final stage of the TNBC journey--attitude plays a big part, right? Of course I still have quarterly follow ups with onc. The rad doc says wants to see me once a year for at least two more years, why? And also follow ups with plastic surgeon and general surgeon....that will keep me on my toes and hopefully there will be no reoccurances!
Susan, I live in the other end of the same state
Thanks to all.
Cindy