hand won't let go of fluid!

mags20487

I have been seen a lymphedema specialist for 3 weeks now and she has been wrapping the arm to reduce the swelling and also wrapping the fingers.  The arm has responded wonderfully thank goodness so now she wraps the fingers and has me wear my sleeve during the day and I am supposed to be wrapping it at night--not gonna lie--not been doing the night thing.  I had to rip the finger wrap off yesterday and will not see her until Tuesday due to the holiday.  Any suggestions about what I should do til I see her again.  I really do not think that the sleeve will help since it is only my hand that is swollen now.  Should I wrap the hand and arm myself along with the fingers...not confident that I am  doing it right and may cause myself more harm than good.  I am still awaiting my custom made gauntlet and night time garment to come in.

Maggie

Binney4

Maggie, I'm so sorry! And of course this all happens over the long weekend.

Definitely don't wear the sleeve without any hand protection. Not sure how skilled you may be with the finger wrapping, but you might want to try it--I think you'd know if it didn't feel right. On the other hand, if you really aren't comfortable with that, can you get an Isotoner therapeutic glove for your hand? Then wear that with the sleeve.

If it were me I'd just wrap the whole shebang and wait out the weekend, but that assumes you're comfortable enough with your technique to do it reasonably well. Here's a page with a photo description of the wrap:
http://www.stepup-speakout.org/wrapping_bandaging_for_lymphedema.htm
Scroll down a bit and you'll see it there. Kira also has some drawings of the finger wrapping technique--hopefully she'll be by and re-post those for you. 

Frustrating!!

(By the way, if your fingers are a problem you need a glove, not a gauntlet (fingerless glove), so do check with her and see what's on order.)

Keep us posted on your progress!

Holiday hugs,
Binney

kira66715

Mags, I'll post the picture of the finger wraps--I started with gauntlets, and then my fingers swelled....Gloves are so much harder to fit than gauntlets, but you don't want sausage fingers.

My only caveat on the gauze finger wrap, which I find comfortable, effective and gives me use of the fingers, is don't wrap too tight. Mild tension on the role. More layers can create more compression. It always puts in two images, sorry

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KS1

My arm responding to wrapping very quickly, but my hand (esp. fingers) was extremely stubborn (even swelled while my LE therapists were doing MLD).  After trying various things for a couple of months, my therapists came up with a 3 point plan: 1) only wrap the hand (the idea being that because the arm wasn't compressed, the fluid would have an easier time getting out of the hand), 2) keep the hand wrapped all the time (even while doing MLD), and 3) reduce the fibosis that was trapping the fluid at the wrist and base of fingers.  It took several months, but it is working!

I would definitely not wear your sleeve without hand protection.  If you are feeling overwhelmed with wrapping the whole hand,  how about just doing a gauze wrap on the fingers, skipping the short-stretch bandages. Keep the gauze on for a couple of hours, and take them off and see what your fingers look like.  If Kira's pics don't work, there are some  YouTube videos of bandaging that you can check out between now and Tues.  When you do see your therapist, ask him/her if you can videotape her bandaging you.  Good luck!  KS1

mags20487

Thanks ladies...I knew you would be able to offer suggestions. And yes we ordered a glove not gauntlet...sadness abounds but you are right--no sausage fingers.  I will try to do the finger wrap to at least give a little bit of compression til tuesday and will just leave off the sleeve for now. 

maggie