Dianne’s Story

I became familiar with lymphedema initially in my career as an orthopedic physical therapist. For the past 5 years, I have practiced as a certified lymphedema therappist, exclusively treating lymphedema patients. I have been humbled by the daily perserverence that is required by these patients to keep their lymphedema under control, and frustrated by the difficulty in obtaining appropriate compression garments for patients when their insurance does not cover them. It is heartbreaking to see someone who is willing to do the daily exericse and manual drainage, wear the multiple bulky garments that are sometimes required in layers, suffer the indignities of looking conspicuous in their garments, and not be able to purchase them due to the considerable expense that may be required several times a year, often a lifetime requirement, year after year. The more patients I treat with lymphedema, the more I realize that multiple garments, many of them custom and therefore even more expensive, are needed for each case to give optimal control, and need regular replacement to remain effective. The expense for someone without insurance coverage for them is often prohibitive, leading to poor lymphededma control and increased medical complications such as infections, hospitalizations, reduced activity tolerance, and the comorbidities that so often become more numerous with the increased sedentary living that follows that sequelia. It is intolerable that lymphedema treatment coverage does not include garment procurement, since control of this incurable disease is rarely successful without compression garments.