Twenty years ago when a woman was diagnosed, all her lymph nodes were removed and biopsied. Thankfully, that is not the way it is done now, and that is a wonderful improvement. But for those of us that had to go through it, we were advised to be careful with that arm that the nodes were removed from, and for most of my 20 years I have been pretty fine.
But the last three years have been awful. I am swollen and no amount of manual lymph drainage can seem to manage it anymore. I wish someone could develop a way to treat this side effect of having breast cancer. It was bad enough to deal with breast cancer treatment, but now to have this malady.
I am thrilled and lucky to have survived all this time; I am very grateful for that! and I am so glad we are searching for a cure for my daughters and sister and friend’s benefits, but I sure wish there was some sort of help for someone like me.
It has been difficult to get insurance coverage. I have been denied coverage because of this pre-existing condition of lymphedema. Thankfully, President Obama got some coverage passed for us, the Pre-Existing Insurance Plan, and so now I finally do have insurance and have been getting some physical therapy this summer, but it has not helped at all. It is difficult to type this. I’m considering going on disability and quitting my job because I really can’t type the way I should for my company. I do hope Medicare will start paying for treatment, just as my insurance is paying.
