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lymphedema leading to hand edema?

Hi Amazing Group,

I have had such pain in my right hand - couldn't figure out what the heck was wrong - until my husband noticed it appeared swollen - then I noticed when I put my work gloves on the right hand was stretched taut and the left was almost too big. So, now I am suspecting edema. I get shooting pains that bring tears to my eyes and even pain killers are not putting much of a dent in it.

Anyone else have this? Do I need to wear a full arm sleeve and gloves to make this work? Who the heck do I talk to about it my oncologist?

Didn't notice my arm having problems, but it is still pretty numb from the lymph node removal.

Any ideas will be appreciated - I work with my hands, not to mention my computer stuff and this is really unbearable. I know, what a whiner, but, this really hurts alot!

Have a great day!

Donna

Hi Donna
I have mild lymphedema in my arm and hand. It started
a few months after my mastectomy. It can be very
painful.

I was lucky because my cancer centre has a physiotherapist
who specializes in lymphedema and she was a big help to me.

I was shown how to do very, very gentle massage on the
skin to help the fluid move up my arm. I also have an elastic
sleeve and glove. I started out with just the sleeve, but my
hand ended up swelling more. Now I use the sleeve and glove
when I am going to be using my arm strenuously. Luckily this
is not my dominant arm. My arm and hand will also swell when
I am traveling in a car.

It is hard to find someone who knows anything about this. I
saw a local physiotherapist and she admitted to me that she
had very little training in this - other than how to wrap a limb.

I hope you can find someone to help you. I was told that this
is something that will flare up at times and I will have to deal
with it. Right now I am doing well. It was worse in the summer
with the heat and with me doing a lot of gardening. Look luck
with this.

Dear Donna:

Colleen has the same problem with the swelling of the hand. Sometimes her hand looks like Mickey Mouses except that Mickey only has four fingers.

Your surgeon should be able to provide you with a compression sleeve and refer you to a physical therapist who can teach you how to deal with the lymphedema with massage and exercises. They also have a one hour course on lymphedema at our HMO.

Lymphedema can create some pretty serious infection if it isn't dealt with, so you need to take it a bit seriously.

I have mild lymphedema in my arm - I showed my oncologist and he sent me to a physical therapist who is lymphedema certified. The threarpist helped me a lot - he would massage it and put a dema pump on it. He would also bandage it overnight. He showed me excersices and self message and prescribed a sleeve for me.

You should show it to your oncologist and if she feels it is lymphedema she will refer you to someone. I am lucky in that mine doesn't hurt, but I know a couple of people who have a painful case.

I was DXed a year ago with stage 0-1 mild lymphedema... the way I discovered it was mostly due to wrist and hand aches. I went to a wound care specialist who also works specialized in lymphedema. She sent me to a lymph massage specialist and prescribed a compression sleeve. We got it under control in about 5 weeks, and though I have had mild flare-ups over the year, I have had very little problem from it. But you need to learn about it and learn the tricks and fixes, so that you can treat mild occurences on your own. Don't let it get out of hand... it is hard to reverse if it becomes severe lymphedema.

Honestly it the the DAMN(excuse me, but I hate it that much) that causes me the most problems. I have to wear a glove and sleeve in order to be able to even use my hand. I have tried everything. Manual Lymphatic massage, night wrapping, reid sleeve, and a lymphatic pump. If it was not for this lymphedema I would think about BC that much. My advice to you, is to get treatment right away. I don't want anyone to get it as bad as me.