Posts tagged with 'lymphedema swelling'

Coordinating people who want to help

  • Posted on March 14, 2010 at 8:49 pm

While you’re being treated for breast cancer many good-hearted people ask how they can help. If the care you need goes beyond, say, two weeks (for example, you have a continued need for meals, childcare, cleaning and rides), two online services may be just the ticket: Lotsa Helping Hands (http://www.lotsahelpinghands.com/volunteering/home) and CareCalendar (http://www.carecalendar.org). You can use either of these volunteer coordination services to allow family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues to organize and arrange for specific tasks. So take a peek or have an Internet-savvy friend look over these sites to see if they are apropos to your situation.

For more details about these two services, please visit:  http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/9692/104424/coordinating?ic=6040

Since I appreciated the help I received while struggling to recover from surgery and chemo, I want to share these helpful resources with those who can use them.

Cheers,

Jan

Hope for patients treated with radiation

  • Posted on February 15, 2010 at 8:59 pm

This month the journal The Lancet Oncology published a study showing that fewer, larger doses of radiation were just as effective as standard radiation in treating women with breast cancer.  The shorter dosing regimen (over the course of three rather than five weeks) produced fewer skin changes in the patients.  As a recipient of radiotherapy I am happy to see this development. Getting radiation completed in three weeks with fewer side effects would be a clear advancement in treatment if adopted as standard practice.  I wonder if this protocol would reduce the risk of lymphedema in patients whose lymph nodes are radiated. Read all about it at:   http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5jORRS6h_Enrx78h0gkS5U6qSAs4g.

Happy belated Valentine’s Day,

Jan

Approval by Health-on-the-Net Foundation

  • Posted on January 18, 2010 at 5:52 pm

The mission of the Health On the Net Foundation is to improve the quality and reliability of the medical Internet by accrediting websites with its HONcode stamp of approval. In my book Mourning Has Broken: Reflections on Surviving Cancer, I recommend that people who seek medical advice online look for the HONcode logo on a website to assure reliability of its content. I wouldn’t want people to be mislead by quackery, that is, information with no proven medical basis. My website (www.janhasak.com) is now HONcode certified, and thus complies with all the principles of the Health On the Net Foundation.

Thank you for your continued support of my cause to advocate for cancer and lymphedema patients.

All the best,
Jan

Clarification to Study of Weightlifting for Lymphedema Patients

  • Posted on January 16, 2010 at 3:20 pm

Here’s the latest from the National Lymphedema Network (NLN) regarding the PAL study by Dr. Kathryn Schmitz and colleagues, Weight Lifting in Women with Breast-Cancer-Related Lymphedema, published in the New England Journal of Medicine on August 13, 2009. When the article first appeared the media overreacted, making several inaccurate and misleading statements about the research. The NLN and many of its affiliated clinics received phone calls from patients and professsionals expressing frustrating about the inaccurate reporting and requesting clarification of the study results and what these mean for individuals living with or at risk for lymphedema.

The NLN Medical Advisory Committee contacted Dr. Schmitz, who agreed to clear up misconceptions about what the PAL trial did and did not show, and to emphasize the continued need to follow risk reduction guidelines. (See the NLN Position Papers on Risk Reduction and Exercise.)

We hope that Dr. Schmitz’s response (Weight Lifting and Lymphedema: Clearing Up Misconceptions) will help clarify the study results for lymphedema survivors and people at risk for lymphedema. The Executive Director of the NLN recommends that lymphedema therapists apply the protocols for the PAL intervention to their practices.

Jan

Detecting regional cancer spread with less pain

  • Posted on September 28, 2009 at 5:40 pm

As a newly diagnosed breast cancer survivor in early 1996 I had 14 lymph nodes removed from my armpit (axial dissection) to detect breast cancer spread (stage my tumor).  All 14 were clean of cancer.  After chemo was complete that same armpit was radiated, further increasing my risk of developing lymphedema. In 1997 I developed arm swelling that was diagnosed as lymphedema.

Sound primitive by today’s standards?  You bet it was!

The sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy became the standard of care a year or two after my diagnosis as a much less invasive way to stage the cancer. To identify the SLN(s), the surgeon injects a radioactive blue dye near the tumor. The surgeon then uses a scanner to find the SLN(s) containing or stained with the radioactive dye. Once the SLN(s) are located, the surgeon makes a small incision in the skin overlying the SLN and removes the lymph node(s).

The SLN(s) is/are then checked for the presence of cancer cells by a pathologist (a doctor who identifies diseases by studying cells and tissue under a microscope). If cancer is found, the surgeon will usually remove more lymph nodes during the biopsy procedure or during a follow-up surgical procedure. SLN biopsy may be done on an outpatient basis or require a short stay in the hospital.

But every procedure involving cancer staging or treatment, it seems, comes with a cost.  A most recent article on the topic published by Ivanhoe Broadcast News  (www.healthscout.com/news/1/8022281/main.html?ic=6006) reports that patients experience excruciating pain when injected with the radioactive tracer as part of the SLN procedure.

Here’s the good news:  Eugene Woltering, M.D., a professor at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, recently developed an alternative radioactive blue dye for use in the SLN biopsy.  A study found that this dye, which lights up hard-to-see lymph nodes likely to be cancerous, works equally as well as the older dye, but without the pain.  Further, the new procedure exposes the patient to one-third less radiation than the current one.

Kudos to Dr. Woltering for another advance to ease the journey for breast cancer patients, just in time for October, breast-cancer awareness month.

Weight lifting- can it control lymphedema swelling?

  • Posted on August 18, 2009 at 5:44 pm

The August 13, 2009 edition of The New England Journal of Medicine contains an article that validates my “can-do”  theory on lymphedema management.  Specifically, it reports that controlled lifting of weights may help breast cancer survivors with lymphedema.  This is contrary to previous thinking, including advice I received in 1997, not to lift more than three pounds with the arm affected by lymphedema.

In this latest study the women with breast cancer who worked out twice a week at their fitness centers doing progressive weight-lifting exercises while wearing compression garments fared better in controlling swelling than those who did not engage in these activities.  The exercises involved upper- and lower-body resistance, stretching, a cardiovascular warm-up, and exercises for the abs and back.

In the twelve years I’ve lived with lymphedema I gradually increased the weights I lifted in the gym from three pounds to seven pounds.  Given the results of this new study, I may boost that limit to ten pounds or more.  I’ll be sure, however, that my weight-lifting is not excessive.  The idea is to increase the weight gradually while donning a compression garment and monitoring for swelling.  My affected arm and hand look better than they have in a long time, and maybe it is because I do those weight-lifting arm exercises twice a week.

As a lymphedema and breast-cancer survivor I am so glad to see studies that encourage arm exercise, just as  I advise in my book, Mourning Has Broken.  Enjoy the gym, guilt-free!

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