From the first moment I discovered my dad had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, it seemed like I was alone in this ugly place. Even ones who had loved ones suffering in this way; even though people TALKED about the disease, it felt for me like they did little more than mumble about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I added a section to this blog…
The immediate crisis that was Breast Cancer and Alzheimer’s have passed. There are, however ancillary issues like testing and treatments that may not be directly related to BC or A but intersect with them. Harvested from different websites, journals and podcasts, I’ll translate them into understandable English and share them with you. Today: https://thelymphielife.com/2021/04/16/compression-pump-review-pumped-about-the-lympha-press-optimal-plus/
My wife has been using one of these for several months now.
While it hasn’t made the compression sleeve, manual massage (rarely now), and the night-time pressure sleeve; it HAS helped and it IS easy to use.
Comparatively.
What is a Compression Pump garment? “…medical devices that stimulate the movement of fluid in the body…three main parts: the console, which supplies pressurized air to the garment; hoses, which transfer the air from the console to each of the garment’s chambers; and the garment itself, which has inflatable air chambers. (The number of chambers in the garment can vary depending on the model of the device, as can the range of pressure offered.) These chambers inflate and deflate in sequence, applying directional massage to move stagnant or trapped fluid upwards toward alternative lymphatic channels.” While the whole shebang takes up half of a side table and is awkward for my wife to put on, it does seem to work…
That same awkwardness also is a deterrent! In the summer, wrapping herself in a bulky “jacket” can be very hot (though with only 3 months of summer (!), it’s not a huge issue in Minnesota.
Perhaps the biggest challenge of all, is that this is a never-ending process. Lymphedema will NEVER be healed. It’s a lifelong condition that, until new technologies are developed that include “Star Trek”-like “medical magic”, it’s not going away.
If you don’t know, breast cancer cells escape the original infection site and can spread throughout the body. Typically, the first place they hit when they’re escaping, are the lymph nodes. When the cancerous breast tissue is removed, they typically biopsy the nodes: “Stage II A is based on one of the following: Either there is no tumor in the breast or there is a breast tumor up to 20 millimeters (about the size of a grape), plus cancer has spread to the lymph nodes under the arm.”
Movement and muscle pressure press the lymph nodes, moving the lymph through the body. The lymph vessels essentially run parallel to the blood vessels, but there’s no “lymph heart” to push it. The lymph vessels have no muscles of their own and depend on pressure from the surrounding muscles to circulate the lymph. When the nodes are removed, the collecting sacs are drained and the lymph is moved around the body.
Remove the nodes and the volume of lymph that can be moved – typically out of the arm in cases of breast cancer – drops drastically and lymph that normally circulates starts to pool, swelling the limb. SOMETHING has to move it and that becomes the responsibility of Human hands…or Human technology.
Wrapping the body and arm in an air-sac-filled lymphedema garment, then pressurized in succession pushes the lymph around and reduces edema…
At any rate, it’s high-tech and as effective as a device replacing removed lymph nodes can be; and until the day comes when they can do lymph node transplants or create artificial lymph nodes, or hand someone a pill that stimulates the growth of brand new lymph nodes https://breastcancerreaper.blogspot.com/2011/07/doctor-gave-me-pill-and-i-grew-new.html…this is the best substitute we have.
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