Flying / Lymphodema
HI lovely ladies
I was just wondering what your thoughts were on flying and the need to wear an arm sock!!
I had a mastectomy and lymphnodes removed last year in April - we are going on a much ne...
Forum Discussion
Hey Debs
Definitely, definitely, definitely YES to wearing your sleeve. I now even wear mine on my 4 hour car drive from home to Perth.
I have lymphodeama. It was already playing up with just a bit of an ache in my arm and my whole arm feeling a bit tight at different times. I went to a said lymphodeama physio up here in the country who said everything was fine. I wanted to be sure before I went on our lovely holiday to Tasmania. I did wear my sleeve for the flights to Sydney and then on to Tassie the next day and also on the way home.
I had both swelling in my surgery arm where my whole hand and arm swelled up like a balloon while we were in Tassie but on top of that my legs also swelled up. I had also worn the sexy socks you get in the hospital on my legs. I now wonder what would have happened if I hadn't worn my socks and sleeves but I did so I was lucky.
When I returned to Perth I went to see the O.T. that I had seen originally following surgery who had my measurements of my arm and she said definite lymphodeama so I was fitted with a proper sleeve and had some treatment over a number of weeks which drained the fluid..
So my advice to you luvy is to definitely wear your sleeve (even though they aren't much of a fashion statement are they?? hee hee) and your socks if you still have them. Also get up and move around the plane (I think that was one mistake I made but then I was still getting over my last chemo so was happy to sleep the whole plane trip) plus try and keep your arm a bit elevated and move it around and give it a bit of light massage for lymph drainage if you have been shown how to do that by any of your medical team.
You may be lucky enough and not have any issues but it is definitely better to be safe than sorry and if you can avoid lymphodeama all the better. Awareness and knowledge is a great thing to have.
There is no reason you can't go off and have a wonderful holiday with your family but unfortunately you just have to be aware of these things now.
I do hope you have an absolutely fabulous fabulous time with your family and that you enjoy enjoy enjoy. I think the time with our families is so much more precious these days, I know it is for me. :-)
LOL, Mich xoxo