Hand and Fingers more Swollen then Arm

Karen, my LE is primarily in my hand/fingers and it is difficult to control--arms are essentially simple cylinders, where hands are very difficult to compress well. Also, the pressure in the lymph system actually gets higher as you move more centrally, so the body has to work harder to get the lymph fluid out of the hands.

Some suggestions: personally, I almost never wear sleeve, and at this point in time, I only wear my custom glove when needed, but I wrap every night--it's a royal pain, but I've tried Solaris/Jovipak and they don't do a good job for my hand. I recently talked to a great fitter and she agreed.

KS1 who doesn't post a lot right now has struggled with hand issues also.

So I'd suggest: you learn how to wrap--and to wrap with gray foam inserts under the wrap, as the "law of LaPlace" shows that the more we make the hand a circle, the more pressure is actually applied to the hand, and not just the edges (imagine wrapping a book firmly--most of the pressure is on the edges, not the middle--same with the hand, unless we build up the palm/dorum with foam or swell spots)

There used to be a great thread pinned to the top by LindaLou showing her hand LE, and she had a picture of how she was wrapped by Steve Norton--owner of  lymphedema training school and a master of foam--

Consider inserts in your gloves--pieces of foam or swell spots to go inside the glove.

Consider that a sleeve/glove often puts too much pressure at the wrist and pushes fluid into the hand--some manufacturers--like medi--put half pressure at the wrist to avoid that "squeeze" of double pressure from the over lap.

In ready made, medi 95 has full pressure in the fingers.

Also, I used to do a lot of gauze wrapping of my hand when I was home, instead of gloves, as I found it worked better.

I'd suggest you try different gloves/sleeves, learn to wrap and know that hands are particularly tough

Here's a piece from Andrea Cheville on why hand protection is needed with a sleeve, and it discusses hand LE:

http://www.lymphedivas.com/handprotection.asp

 A quote:

Compression applied to the arm may reduce lymph flow from the hand. Even
a normal lymphatic system works harder to drain lymph from the hand
than other parts of the arm. This fact explains why hand lymphedema is
often the most challenging to treat and why lymphedema specialists take
great pains to prevent it.

I bumped LindaLou53's thread--it used to be pinned to the top. I think you'll get a lot of good ideas from it.

Good luck and in my experience, it's hard, but it gets better.

Kira

Ooh, Dawne-Hope, what a brilliant idea about the isotoner over-glove! BOY do they snag! And then sometimes they'll unravel off my thumb (this usually has something to do with a run-in with Velcro--natural enemy of both gauze wraps and compression garments). And once I was sewing on a button and when I finished I realized my gauze-wrapped thumb was sewed onto it. Other times it just gets caught on something and a single lousy thread pulls out and snags on everything in sight for the rest of the day (until I can get somebody to cut it for me, since I can't cut it left-handed). And anyway, they just get so incredibly (embarrassingly!) dirty. 

Brilliant, Dawne-Hope--thank you!
Binney

My swelling is also mainly in my hand/fingers, with only discomfort and mild swelling in my upper arm and trunk.

At night, I wrap my hand in 3 rolls of 4 cm x 4 m transelast classic conforming bandages and then wear Solaris's Tribute fingertip to axilla sleeve on top of it, with swell spots in the dorsum and palm and a Tribute outer jacket.   If I wear that combo for 12 hours, I can wear day garments during the other 12 hours. 

During the day, I wear a juzo custom glove with a custom juzo soft sleeve.  If it is a sedentary day, I sometimes just wear a opera length custom juzo glove. My hand really likes the opera length glove (probably because no double compression at the wrist), but my upper arm gets sore.  I've tried a combined sleeve/glove (basically a glove that extends to the axilla), but it is a real bear to get on. KS1