A journey
This is a testament to spring microsurgery and daily use of my FlexiTouch pump: the sleeve on top is my new one. It looks smaller in real life. So much so that when I took it out of the package on Monday, I blurted out an adult word! But it fits great!!
Fingers crossed for additional surgery in the spring!
Take that, lymphedema!
On the last episode of The Bachelorette in May, Cameron “Cam” Ayala told Hannah Brown that he has a medical condition that he must deal with every day: lymphedema.
Continue reading “Lymphedema in popular culture: The Bachelorette”
At UW Medical Center pre-op center with the awesome heated air blanket! This is what is on tap for me later today if all goes well.
“In the first procedure, called lymphovenous bypass, surgeons peer through a microscope and use minute instruments to connect blocked lymphatic vessels as small as 0.3 millimeters in diameter to a nearby vein. The bypass allows excess lymph fluid to flow more freely.
“In the second procedure, called lymph node transfer, surgeons microsurgically transplant healthy lymph nodes that have a rich blood supply to an area of lymphatic injury to re-establish lymphatic connections.”
Continue reading “Cancer, the gift that keeps on giving: LVA and LNT on deck”
After the initial breast cancer diagnosis, days are crammed with tests and your brain can become overloaded with what seems like a never-ending list of decisions about treatment. The patient is the center of a large and complex health care team. But once those initial, traditional treatments are history – surgery, chemotherapy, radiation – it’s time to cope and recover from side effects.
Some side effects are less well-known by lay people (or even other doctors, such as cardiac specialists) and may be less well-described by the care team.
One of these side effects is breast cancer–related lymphedema. A form of secondary lymphedema, it is a debilitating byproduct of breast cancer treatment (lymph node removal, either sentinel node biopsy or axillary, and radiation therapy).
Continue reading “Surviving breast cancer treatment: lymphedema”
I’m a candidate for surgery for the lymphedema! And a I get my new “pump” next week (shipped today). My co-pay is $600 (15%). Regence paid more than that for the single-sleeve-pump that did not work.
Hopefully I get new compression glove/sleeve next week, too.
Continue reading “Lymphedema update: upcoming surgery + pump”