I have been sick all my life with primary lymphedema, symptomatic since age 10, and I was only recently diagnosed at age 50. Doctors are not educated properly on lymphedema. When they see a patient with edema, they automatically try to blame it on the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys…everything but the lymph system. I know […]

Yesterday, was the third day we visited a lymphedema therapist that my mom was sent to by her doctor for treatment. After unwrapping her garments, doing measurements and doing quick lymph drainage, she started wrapping quickly her enormously swollen feet back. While doing that, she kept saying that apparently this treatment is not working and […]

I developed secondary lymphedema after a Modified Radical Mastectomy of my left breast in spring 1999. At the time there were no treatment centers in my area. My oncologist treated me by telling me to wrap in Ace Bandages, which I now know is the worse treatment possible. I was working as a Department of […]

I was diagnosed with stage 1 estrogen receptor positive breast cancer in Oct of 2011. Nov 29, 2011 I had a left lumpectomy and sentinel node biopsy. I had 7 lymph nodes removed all negative. Around Feb I noticed that if I carried anything in my left arm even though it was less than 10 […]

Medicare is my primary insurer… it is often assumed that if Medicare won’t pay, neither will your secondary insurer. This is what I was told, so I paid for my compression sleeve and gauntlet.  Several weeks later, I received benefit information from my group health plan, which included facts about the “Women’s Health & Cancer […]

I have breast cancer and had a double mastectomy 2 years ago. I have triple negative breast cancer. Only my left side was affected by the cancer, but I opted to have both breasts removed, as I didn’t want to take a chance on a recurrence or transference to the other side. After 2 years, […]

In 2011 I had Zero stage breast cancer. I did not have a lump, I had calficifications. In Europe they are monitored and not removed. Here in the USA most of the time they are removed. In so doing, I ended up with lymphedema in my chest/arm/hand. I do know some patients who are being monitored here […]

I was diagosed with Lymphedema at the age of 57. But I had left leg swelling since I was 28 years old. It never was treated. I had a hysterectomy, due to a cyst rupturing and have a lot of scar tissue in the abdomen. But in 2007, I had leuckocytoclasticvasculitis caused from prescribed medications. This caused […]

I am 64 years old and was born with Milroy’s Disease as was my mother, grandmother and an uncle. Being surrounded by others with the same condition led me to believe for my first five or six years that this was the “norm”. I was basically told, “You were born with it, you’ll die with […]