Are the wraps helping? Have you noticed a difference?
Yes and yes. I have been using just the calf wrap (thigh is coming later this week, I think) on my right leg, and it has stopped it from being in pain. It’s heavy, but my leg doesn’t feel swollen, if that makes sense. Like double bagging a grocery bag, almost. And coupled with lying on the couch with my feet up for a couple of evenings, and wrapping during the day, I’ve had to run to the bathroom every hour. Which is annoying, but great.
My leg is much smaller than it was even just two days ago. It also hurts way less than my left leg, which has never been quite as bad as my right. I hope I can order more wraps soon.
And here I get long-winded about lymphedema. TL;DR: yes, the wrap is great.
The lymphatic system is like a bunch of roots that go all over your body. Its job is to circulate all of that water that humans are made of. Going in, it drops off proteins and nutrients, going out, it washes the debris and bacteria away. But, just like roots, if the lymphatic system is damaged (through injury or, in my case, radiation during cancer treatments), it stops being able to do its job so well. It delivers the fluid and then the fluid just sort of… sits there. And the longer this goes on, the more damaged it gets, the harder your heart works, the more your skin stretches… and pretty soon you can get lesions and super bad infections and blood clots, etc, because your muscles and skin are saturated with this dirty protein water. Super gross.
It can’t be cured because they have no idea how to repair the tiny little fragile lymphatic veins. They’re working on it, sure, but right now, all we can do is drain and compress.
Draining is done with massage (manual lymphatic drainage/total decongestive therapy) by a specialized therapist. You can also do dry brushing yourself, massaging the skin to get the fluid to go back toward your heart. Gravity helps, putting your legs above your heart for long periods of time. That makes your legs more squishy and stuff, but the skin is still stretched out and the lymphatic system is still just gonna drop more fluid down there. So you moisturize your skin to try to get it healthy, elastic, and tight again, and put on a compression wrap (or sock, if your leg is small enough) so that the lymph fluid CAN’T JUST SIT THERE; there’s NO ROOM. This enables you to sit at a desk and stuff and your leg is like ‘man there’s lots of pressure, just gonna push that lymph fluid away.’
Lather, rinse, repeat. Every day. For the rest of your life.