Wearing a Solarius Tribute with trigger finger OUCH! Help!

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Cori221
Cori221 Member Posts: 21
edited June 2014 in Lymphedema

I have been wearing a Solarius Tribute at night since last October. In order to get the right amount of compression I have to wear the outer jacket as well.  Although my fingers, especially my pinkie have always felt squished I got used to it and only really had trouble the day of the week I washed it when it was tighter.  I have now developed trigger finger in my pinkie and middle finger (most likely from Armidex) which makes it painful to wear the sleeve.  I have emailed the company as I understand they will make one adjustment free and are easy to work with.

I am wondering if anyone here has had similar issues and what suggestions or ideas you might have about what to try?  My swelling is mostly in my forearm. I do have swelling in my hand after taking my sleeve and glove off I wear during the day.  The swelling in my hand is gone in the morning after wearing the Tribute and jacket.  My therapist was wondering about shortening the Tribute and jacket and having them end at the base of my fingers.  The thumb is fine the way it is.  She wants my hand covered but isn't concerned about the fingers.

I would welcome thoughts from any of my sisters!

 Hugs,

Cori 

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  • KS1
    KS1 Member Posts: 632
    edited May 2012

    Hmm ... if the Tribute is shortened to end at the base of the fingers, then you would have compression on your hand, but not your fingers.  I would worry that, given that you already have hand swelling, this would push the fluid into your fingers while you sleep.  

    Have you ever worn a day sleeve with a gauntlet (fingerless gove)?  If so, did you fingers swell at all?  If they did even the tiniest bit, I would be cautious about not compressing the fingers.  Of course, if you did cut the Tribute off at the base of the fingers, you probably could wrap your fingers in gauze while wearing the Tribute.  That said, I'm not sure if gauze wrapping would irritate your trigger fingers less than the Tribute hand.   -KS1 

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  • Binney4
    Binney4 Member Posts: 8,609
    edited May 2012

    Cori, what a bummer of a puzzle!

    I agree with KS that it's worrisome not to have your fingers covered at all, since you've had hand swelling.

    Have you tried wearing it without the jacket? How about cutting down JUST THE JACKET to that level and leaving the sleeve/glove alone?

    Or, I'm assuming you have finger spacers, so perhaps just removing those would help? With possibly a layer of Artiflex between fingers so they aren't irritated? Or even removing the spacers and easing the fit a bit?

    What a dilemma! Please keep us posted! (And, gee, thanks a whole bunch, Arimidex!Yell)

    Gentle hugs,
    Binney

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  • my2boys
    my2boys Member Posts: 339
    edited May 2012

    I had a similar problem and I had them cut the finger portion of the tribute off.  I have just the hand covered, but no fingers.  When it came time for my second tribute, I had them make it with no fingers.  My fingers feel much better now that I can move them. 

    My LE Therapist gave me a Caresia glove...something new....it is quilted like the tribute but it is for the hand only.  If my fingers or hand swell at all, I put on the glove for a few hours and it reduces the swelling completely.  Yesterday my fingers were swollen pretty badly, so I put on the glove and wrapped over the glove for a full hour and this did the trick.

    Hope this helps.

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  • Cori221
    Cori221 Member Posts: 21
    edited May 2012

    Thanks for your replies.  I don't have finger spacers.  My fingers are just all squished together and the jacket of course squishes them even more. Are finger spacers maybe something I need? Were they making those last October?  Should I have ordered those with my Tribute or is that something new they have?

     My daytime glove doesn't bother my trigger finger.  I have to wear the jacket or I start swelling in my forearm.  The compression in the night sleeve without the jacket isn't enough for me. I will try pulling the jacket down to my knuckles. I notice on the Solarius website that they have a night sleeve that goes to the wrist and then a seperate glove.  Do you think that is a possibility? Has anyone tried that?

    Thanks again everyone for your suggestions.

    Cori 

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  • KS1
    KS1 Member Posts: 632
    edited May 2012

    It sounds like the Tribute is too tight in the hands, and finger spacers would probably make matter worse.  

      The outer jacket is relatively cheap (BrightLife charged me $90 a year ago), so if you cut the finger portion of the outer jacket off as Binney suggests and found it wasn't good, it wouldn't be as big a financial hit to get a new one.  I wouldn't recommend pulling the outer jacket down off the fingers because then there would be double compression on the hand.

     Here're are two suggestions

    1) To give your fingers a bit more room, open up the top of the seam of the finger portion of the Tribute (on mine, there is a seam on the index finger side).  If that isn't enough, you could try cutting the pinky side.  However, at least on my Tribute, there is no seam on the pinky side, so if you made a cut, the filling will start coming out

    2) Instead of using an outer jacket, wrap short stretch bandages around the Tribute.  You can apply less pressure to the fingers

    KS1 

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  • kira66715
    kira66715 Member Posts: 4,681
    edited May 2012

    The finger spacers are put in the hand portion of the Tribute to address finger swelling--those of us with finger swelling find them helpful, but not amazing. For example: KS1, cut hers out and gauze wraps beneath the Tribute.

    Here's another suggestion. Get rid of the jacket for now, and use short stretch bandages and you can vary how much pressure goes over the fingers and the forearm.

    I wear my Tribute with a 6 cm short stretch over the hand to the forearm. And that does it for me. I also put in a palm spot to tighten up the hand.

    You get more control if you wrap it, and only one or two bandages would be needed.

    And, work with the company, so you don't void your warranty.

    A few of us have dealt with them about hands, and so far, they haven't "gotten it", but the more of us that report hand issues, the more likely they are to take it on.

    Ironically, I think the Caresia glove is far nicer than the one piece Tribute, when it comes to hands. I have a Tribute glove, and for me, it didn't work.....

    Kira

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  • Cori221
    Cori221 Member Posts: 21
    edited May 2012

    Thank you everyone for your great suggestions.  I have forwarded them to my therapist and am anxious to see what we come up with.  Will let you know what we do and how it works.

     The bandaging on top of the sleeve without the jacket might be my best bet rather than making some permenant adjustment since  my trigger finger condition varies day by day. There are some nights that  I can handle the sleeve and jacket just fine and other times I have to take the jacket off in the middle of the night.

    Thanks again.  You are the greatest!

    Cori 

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  • Kicks
    Kicks Member Posts: 4,131
    edited May 2012

    I use an Isotoner '1/2' finger glove under my Tribute, I also have an 'opera' length Isotoner glove for under it when I'm having issues with my problem area (elbow). (From my LE guy.) I also have 2 sleeve covers for it. With all my option - I do good with doing what each day(s) bring.

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  • KS1
    KS1 Member Posts: 632
    edited June 2012

     I called Solaris about getting a new outer jacket for my old (2010) Tribute.  They told me that they redesigned the Tribute's outer jacket so it now buttons to the top of the Tribute, and that, if I wanted a new outer jacket, I would have to send them my Tribute so they could retrofit it with buttons.  Talked to my therapist today about this, and she hadn't heard of this.  

    Does anyone have a Tribute with a button outer jacket?  Has anyone recently gotten a replacement outer jackets for their  Tribute?   - KS1


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