Change without progress/bc.org's new exercise page

kira66715

Breastcancer.org has updated their exercise page

http://www.breastcancer.org/tips/exercise/

Unfortunately, the word lymphedema never appears, and one "expert": Linda T Miller, is a PT who runs weekend courses for lymphedema therapy, and strongly promotes exercise for LE, and did work with the U Penn crew for a while, but hasn't been part of their studies. She is not a graduate of a reputable LE training school nor is she LANA certified. 

I am not familiar with the other two experts, but see that one is on the board of the APTA who hold the stance that ANY PT can treat LE--no additional training needed, and the other woman has blogged here.

I have dealt with a Linda T Miller grad, and found her knowledge base lacking.

Any suggestions?

Would you recommend this page to a woman undergoing treatment for breast cancer? 

Do you think they should specifically address LE risk?

How do we get this place that we value to value our needs and the needs of women at risk?

Kira

sushanna1

Kira,

Yes.  I think that as a breast cancer web site, they should should address LE risk.  Actually I think that breastcancer.org has an obligation to address the risk of LE.  Not do do so is unacceptable in my opinion.   So whom do we write to this time?

Thanks for all your activism on our behalf.

Sue 

Outfield

I did not realize at first that the blue headings expanded.  That initial page seems very vague. There is some info on lymphedema risk if you expand the heading "Exercise Safely."   

Anonymous

Hey, Kira, they actually mention a lot of exercises we have noticed are problematic, such as yoga positions like downward dog, the use of bands, pushups, and routines that involve a lot of arm movement. It's actually better than I expected. When the sections are expanded, they give more info. The PAL program, Cathy Bryan and PALs for Life are mentioned, as well as the need to proceed slowly with weights and to make sure your trainer has experience working with BC survivors.



They should mention if you click on the sections that they expand and provide more detailed info.



Are the revisions perfect? Of course not.

cookiegal

On my bride message board we had a beating head against wall emoticon.

It seems appropriate.

Listen I appreciate the fact that they want some positive, aspirational content on here. It's just a shame they have a blind spot with LE. 

carol57

I think they did a pretty good job of inserting precautions where needed. But when I first read the blog, I too did not realize that the idea was to click on the subheadlines to get more detail. The piece on exercising safely does a better job for us than the NLN position paper on exercise.  I noted LE mentions and precautions on most of the sub pages. 

kira66715

Thanks for explaining that the subject headings led to further information--how are we supposed to know that?

There's a place on the bottom of the page that says "was this helpful", and I clicked no, as that page wasn't.

carol57

Truly, clicking on subject headings was not obvious.