Lymphedema

One side effect I have continually prayed would leave me alone was lymphedema. Lymphedema is when your lymph fluid backs up in one location of your body. This causes swelling in that area. Most often the people that get this are those that have undergone surgery for cancer, specifically breast cancer. Since I did not have this side effect after the first round of cancer I thought (haha on me) it was going to skip me. I was wrong.

Over the past few weeks my left arm has continued to feel odd. It is hard to say exactly why it felt odd, even how it felt odd, it just felt different. In a panic I searched up and down the left side of my body thinking it could be a new tumor. I found nothing. To be safe I called the doctor and they suggested I see the plastic surgeon to have a foob check.

My appointment with plastics could not have gone better. He had not seen me since he signed off on the exchange surgery from expanders to implants back in November of 2019….a lot has happened to me since then…new cancer diagnosis, more surgery, radiation, and a new chemotherapy drug. He is the best and told me that after we had run into each other in the hospital (as I was getting ready for my full lymph node dissection) he had been watching my chart to see what they had lined up next for me. The dude had been in surgery for 9 hours and remembered that. I love him. Really my favorite doctor I have worked with throughout this entire thing.

Most women after undergoing radiation with an implant end up with disfigured foobs. Google it and you will see some pretty intense images of what can happen. Specifically the radiated breast becomes higher, significantly tighter making it appear smaller than the other side foob that did not receive radiation, and harder. In very simple terms this happens because the surrounding healthy tissue becomes hardened scar tissue. The medical terms for this, capsular contraction is pretty common and we get warned about it prior to receiving radiation. But my foobs and body held up like a champ. So much so that my doctor kept saying he was astonished at how amazing my body looked because it didn’t appear as if I had radiation aside from the discolored skin that skill marks my body. Point one Alicia, Cancer zero.

The next doctor I was off to see in a quest to determine what was up was the physical therapist. This is who finally explained that I was getting lymphedema. You would think it is easy to determine but at this time my arm was not swollen, just feeling odd. However in a matter of weeks it did start to get more swollen. I love you all and I am trying to be honest and show you what cancer does to you, but this, this is not a part I wanted to document and have to look back on. So, no picture…maybe another time.

For the past few weeks I have been religiously doing my stretches, working out every single day, doing a self lymphatic drainage massage and wearing my sweet compression sleeves and gloves. I look completely crazy. But it seems to be working. My cancer side is still not back to normal but unless you really stare at my arms you wouldn’t notice immediately…well today that is.

This is the link to my favorite massage youtube video. For me, it was the only one I did that made a visible and physical difference. The pressure and pain in my arm decreased after doing this for three days straight. I now do this every single day after working out and stretching.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up_sIKnZ-_g

Try it out if you are experiencing any swelling.