It is your physician who is responsible for making the diagnosis of lymphedema. Information about your medical history, any surgeries or illnesses you have had in the past or now, is important for your doctor to make a diagnosis.

Sometimes some tests are done to rule out other problems that can look like lymphedema. Only, after your doctor has determined that this is lymphedema. Only after your doctor has determined that this is lymphedema should you go ahead with treatment designed for lymphedema.

Medical science is not able to determine why one person gets lymphedema and the next one doesn’t. It probably has a lot to do with how many lymphatics you were born with and how the damage was done.

Don’t blame yourself for getting lymphedema. The important thing is to focus on your management of it and finding relief.

If left untreated, lymphedema can lead to the hardening of underlying soft tissue (fibrosis) and overall bulkiness in the arms or legs. It also reduces the level of oxygen flow to the tissues which interferes with wound healing. If the condition persists, the skin thickens and hardens, and can lead to impaired mobility, decreased muscle strength and poor quality of life.

Lymphedema is a condition caused by the accumulation of lymphatic (protein) fluid in the body. It causes swelling in the arms or legs.

Swelling may occur as a result of:

Radiation or removal of lymph nodes.

Cellulitis infection

Diabetes/Diabetic ulcers

Hip and knee replacement

Primary or hereditary lymphedema

Breast, gynecological, testicular, bladder, colon, prostate or skin cancer

The swelling can occur either immediately following surgery or several years.

It often results in a feeling of heaviness, slight discomfort, cosmetic deformity, and repeated episodes of infection, such as cellulitis.

We have a dedicated group of Physical and Occupational Therapists who will carefully treat you and monitor your progress.

Our staff are all certified Lymphedema therapists in the Dr. Vodder method.

Manual Lymph Therapy can treat:

• Post breast reconstructive surgery

• Post plastic surgery

• Wound care

• Swelling due to sports injuries

• Trauma

• Diabetes

• Post orthopedic surgery

• Venous insufficiency

Lymphedema occurs when there is damage or something abnormal in the way the system is working.

When your veins change due to genetics or illness, it can become enlarged and over-stretched. It cannot return to its original shape.

As a result, it allows blood to leak back down into the affected limb.

Compression stockings can provide extra needed support to these veins and thus keep swelling to a minimum.

Primary Lymphedema happens without any reason, and may be in the arms, legs, or any part of the body. It’s far more common in the legs than arms, and is more common in females than males.

In Primary Lymphedema, the lymph vessels may be too small, not have enough lymphatics, or too wide so the valves in the vessels don’t work.

If it is present at birth or soon after, it is called Congenital Lymphedema.

If it occurs before age 35 it is caled Lymphedema Praecox. After age 35 it is called Lymphedema Tarda.

Secondary Lymphedema occurs when some kind of damage happens to the lymphatic system. This could be surgery or radiation to treat cancer, damage from trauma such as a car accident or knee/hip replacement, chronic inflammation or infection that damages the lymphatics, cancel cells that might block lymph flow through lymph vessels, or parasites or other foreign material might be blocking the lymphatics.

Other swelling can happen when you sprain your ankle, get a bug bite, break your wrist, or just get a bump or bruise. This kind of swelling is called “lympho-dynamic edema” because the lymphatic system is still working just fine. It has to work very hard to remove all this swelling, but as long as the lymphatic themselves weren’t damaged they work “dynamically” to remove the extra waste, the swelling goes away.

Lymphedema, on the other hand, happens when the lymph system is not able to work as hard as it used to and has been damaged some way. Other names for lymphedema are “lympho-stat edema” and “lymph stasis.”

No, Lymphedema is not curable. However, therapy available for patients with lymphedema is designed to help you make the body part with lymphedema somewhat smaller.

More importantly, in the long term, is therapy that teaches you how to keep your lymphedema under control so you can live the kind of like you prefer as much as possible.

You will have to make some changes in your life in order to manage your lymphedema. Your therapist will work with you to develop a program that allows you the best control your lymphedema, within the limits and lifestyle that you prefer.

The blood circulation is a circular system that moves nutrients to cells in the body and removes wastes from the cells. The wastes are then carried to the liver, kidneys, and lungs so we can get rid of them.

Some of the wastes are larger molecules that cannot be removed by the blood. This system is responsible for removing the rest of these wastes.

It’s a one way system that picks up these large waste molecules from the tissues of the body, and carries them to large blood vessels so the waste can be removed. Some of these waste molecules are proteins that attract water molecules.

Lymph fluid is a clear liquid with a slightly yellow tinge, and is sticky. It is very like the fluid in a blister.

The lymph fluid is made of the waste protein molecules, the water molecules that the proteins attract, bits of dead and broken cells, and the foreign cells such as perfume or chemical molecules. The lymph fluid from the intestines is different. It is white because it also has few fat molecules in it.

The fluid gets into the smallest lymph vessels, called lymph capillaries, through little flaps in the walls of these vessels. As the pressure changes in the body tissue due to the movement of breathing and the pulsing of the blood vessels, the waste molecules are pushed against the lymph capillaries, which open to let the molecules in.

Once the section of lymph capillary is full, the flaps can’t open any more, and the fluid is pushed into a bigger section of the vessel (or tubing). The fluid travels into bigger and bigger lymph vessels, collecting more fluid from other little vessels, and passes through the lymph nodes.

From the lymph nodes the fluid passes into even bigger tubes called lymph trunks or ducts, and these end at the big veins behind the collarbone on both sides of the neck. In other words, this is away to move these larger molecules of waste from the cells in the tissues in the bloodstream, so the body can rid itself of waste.

There are many lymph nodes throughout the body. Some people call them glands, but that is not correct. The lymph nodes are placed along the lymph vessels, like beads on a string. Every organ in the body has lymph nodes and lymph vessels, like beads on a strong. Every organ in the body has lymph nodes and lymph vessels to help remove waste products from cells.

There are major groups of lymph nodes in each armpit, at the inside of each elbow, in each groin region, at the back of each knee, and many in the neck.

Lymph nodes identify anything that doesn’t belong in the body such as bacteria or viruses and starts the immune response by making different cells to fight the invaders. The lymph nodes also store some things that shouldn’t be traveling around the body such as coal dust or cancer cells.

In addition, the lymph nodes also remove some of the water from the lymph fluid.