Thursday, October 9, 2014

30 facts in 30 days, Day 8

I got busy and missed yesterday, so I'll put up days 8 and 9 today.


"Although they experienced classic symptoms of post-surgical lymphedema, many breast patients didn't recognize the condition as related to treatment and said they didn't receive any information about it from their healthcare providers..." The link below is a small-sample study, but it echoes my experience. My doctors told me that since I had only had a sentinel node biopsy (7 nodes removed total between the two sides), my risk was negligible. In fact, they did not even recognize it as lymphedema when I pointed the swelling and redness out to them. My PT diagnosed it: lymphedema in my right axilla, upper arm (now also in my hand), upper chest, breast, torso, and left abdomen.

Breast cancer: lymphedema awareness lacking

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