Lessening Lymphedema
|  Video
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| Anne Kelly |
| 11/9/2009 |
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| As if cancer weren`t enough. Some people who battle the disease, go on to develop another condition. one that can be painful and limit a person`s activities . But that pain can be lessened, and the condition can get better. Weeks to years after cancer treatment, or after having lymphnodes removed or damaged, a person is at risk of developing lymphedema, a condition unlike any other. For Tammy Lapp-Harris, symptoms started while she was still being treated for Hodgkin`s lymphoma.. "I started noticing a lot of pain in my arm and then my hand and my finger started to swell and I had swelling in my upper arm or my forearm here," she says. Her swollen right arm was caused by lymphedema, a condition where the lymph fluid in the arm or leg stops draining properly because the lymphatic system has been thrown off. "There`s no cure for lymphedema so it`s something we teach the patient how to manage," says physical therapist Erica Schuler. She works with people like Lapp-Harris to make living with lymphedema bearable. All it takes is two weeks of hands-on therapy. During that time, Schuler spends a lot of time applying pressure on the swollen area to increase the flow of the existing lymphatic system. "We use the manual techniques to promote that flow out of the arm," says Lapp-Harris. Patients also take a daily trip to the compression pump, to move fluid away from the fingers or toes. And before heading home each day they are wrapped up securely with three layer of bandages. "Once you`re diagnosed with cancer and you go through that range of emotions, this is something that`s very manageable," Lapp-Harris says. For her, the process first took away her pain, and then much of her swelling, making her lymphedema something she could live with. Most patients with Lymphedema don`t have to have any other therapy after two weeks of intensive treatment. They`re given a compression garment to wear every day, which helps get circulation in the swollen limb open so swelling doesn`t increase again. |
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