spider tape

Ericamary

any thoughts on this? I am currently wearing until i get my first glove and sleeve. Seems worthless to me?

KS1

Hi Ericamary,

Hadn't heard of spidertape, but from my quick googling, it sounds like it it a form of kinesiotape.  Some people have found kinesiotape to be quite effective on LE.  Do a search for "kinesiotape" on the lymphedema forum.  LindaLou is one of the folks who really know about kinesiotape.

K1 

Kicks

I tried kinesio tape once and it caused the open areas to swell. My LE guy had not used it while I was waiting for my garments - was wrapped then. So many had swore by it so I finally talked him into trying it - he was right - I'm too weird for it to be right for me.

Nitocris

Hi,

I used kinesio tape on my hand and it worked really well.  The first glove I got was so wrong that my hand swelled pretty badly.  My therapist applied a fan-shaped tape on the back of the hand with the anchor at the wrist and the swelling went down in a couple of days.

I use tape on the torso when I have to fly;  one long fan-shaped strip from axilla down toward inguinal nodes and another strip from above the mastectomy scar toward the neck.  Those areas are hard to reach with compression and this promote the lymph flow toward the desired areas.   I usually put the tape on one or two days before flying and keept it on for one day or so.   If I go on a beach vacation, I remove the tape upon reaching the hotel and get in the water ASAP.  Water provides an even better compression.

The only place where it has not worked to well is the back of my upper arm.  I have some fibrotic tissues there and it is harder to get the lymph flowing properly. My therapist was not sure she had put it right either, so maybe that's why.  

Where and how did your therapist apply the tape?

Here is a link from Step Up-Speak Out web site with lots of very useful information about kinesio taping:

 http://www.stepup-speakout.org/kinsiotaping_for_lymphedema.htm

Nitocris

Hi SD, when you say that the tape caused the open areas to swell, do you mean that your therapist applied the tape on open wounds?

One of the rules is never to tape on top of open wounds. Taping can be done around a wound to help decrease the pain and swelling, but the therapist should have some knowledge on how to do it and apply proper tension to the tape.  No trials and errors for this kind of taping.