[vlcarr]

Hey Skip,

I just wanted to agree with what Hayley said. I went for physical therapy after my mastectomy and received myofasial release therapy. This was wonderful. They do a special type of massage on your arm and on the actual scar. She also gave me exercises to do at home to help with healing and getting back range of motion. My surgeon recommended this for me at my 6 week check up. The therapist told me they are trying to work with women sooner versus waiting until problems develop and then trying to fix them. You can google it and read about the purpose but it was a huge help to me. The therapist needs to be trained in it.

After about 3 months of that therapy, I brought up lymphedema to my therapist, so she arranged for me to have 3 sessions with that therapist. She told me she was not a certified lymp therapist so she sent me to one at the same facility who was.

I've had 3 sessions with her which were wonderful. My husband went with me to one of them so she could show him how to do the massage on my arm. She actually had him do it on her arm so he could a feel for the amount of pressure to apply. She also gave me exercises to do and showed me how to do self massage. I know have a compression sleeve (a script from my surgeon) and a gauntlet.

All of this is being done for prevention as I don't have lymphedema. I'm just trying to be proactive and do what I can.

I have found all of this to be very beneficial and I feel much better educated. My insurance paid for all of the sessions.

You seem to be very involved with your wife's care, as my husband is, so I thought this might be something you would be interested in. When my husband could he went with me to all the sessions so he could watch and learn as well.

Best of luck. Your wife is lucky to have you!