Difference Between Night and Day Sleeves

Day sleeves operate through compression only, gradient from wrist to axilla. They provide a firm surface against which your muscles can operate, maximizing the nudging impact of muscle action against lymphatic capillaries. Night garments have much less compression and use channels of sewn-in bumpy foam chips to press into the skin irregularly but in a certain pattern, to nudge the lymph upward and keep it from pooling. Some, like Jovi Paks and Tributes, look very much like oven mitts on steroids.  They're comfy and soft, but some find them hot to wear.  I'm not familiar with other night solutions but I think the general idea is to apply pressure but not super-compressive like a day sleeve, and that won't do you harm by wrinkling or folding over as you sleep, creating a high pressure point that you're not aware of. The Stepup page on garments gives you an easy way to look at lots of alternatives, day and night:  http://stepup-speakout.org/Lymphedema_garments.ht... You'll find the Tribute under Solaris.

I use a Tribute at night and I really love it.  It feels like a hug when I put it on, and almost always it alleviates my daily arm ache.  I wore it once while driving all day, which normally makes my arm flare, and I found that the arm movement all day seemed to cause the Tribute to send fluid into my shoulder and around my shoulder blade, so now I'm wary of using it for what it's not intended, i.e. day wear, when muscles are active.  I wore it while flying overnight to Europe once and the biggest result was some extra glances from my row-mates...they didn't ask, but I explained to help satisfy their curiosity.

Hi All! Does anyone have any suggestions on getting rid of the 'wrinkles' in your skin from the night garment? It seems like it takes a while for them to go away?? I don't have to wear a day sleeve all that much so with short sleeve shirts it looks funny. Is there a massage or something that will aid it in going away faster? Thanks!!

Thanks, Carol. Another question, if you don't mind. With the night garment can we sleep in long sleeve? Our house gets chilly. Wondering what any of you do for jammies?  I'm not sure that I can even get my JoviPak on over a sleeve? Ugh.

mcgis, the night garment needs to be on the skin, so yup, it's a challenge to find jammies with sleeves that are wide enough to go over it.  So far, I just use a short-sleeve or sleeveless jammie top and tough it out.  My non-garmented arm and shoulder do get cold, but oh well, that's what blankets are for.  I've toyed with the idea of just cutting one sleeve from a nightgown or PJ top, but crazy as it sounds, I just can't bring myself to mutilate even PJs to accommodate this vile LE.

During the winter I wear oversized flannel night shirts so that the arms are larger and do fit over the night sleeve.  Yes, they are 'baggy' but so what.  I've also found that men's flannel pj's tend to have bigger arms.  There is also the option of making your own and just increasing the one arm size (in today's world most patterns come with several sizes im the same package).  When it's really cold, I like 'footie jams' and they need to fit the rest of me better than just going getting bigger so make them.  Not hard to do.  

Summer I just wear what I've always worn - skimpy.

From all I've been told - basically nothing should ever be worn under sleeves -day or night.  They will make lines/creases that prevent the garment from working as designed.  That said - on the orders of my CLET guy - I use an opera lenght medical IsoToner glove (he gives them to me) under my Solaris Tribute.  My ST is a gauntlet style instead of a glove (with my slightly webbed hand it would be basically impossible it get something that bulky to not cause problems in hand) so to give the very small amount of hand compression to keep it from causing minor swelling in hand, the IsoToner works great.  I've tried the wrist length and it's better than nothing but the opera length (elbow) is better for me.  The night garment 'lines' show up the same with or without the IsoToner - hand does better with.

We are all so different and what works for us individually is also so diferent.

I did the same as kareenie with the top from a very old, very cheap pair of jammies.  The only downside is if I get too hot I have to take off the night sleeve to remove the mutilated pj top.  I prefer a light fuzzy blanket to pull over my shoulders if I get chilly.  For me it's a little more convenient. 

Carol, do you only wear your day sleeve when your arm feels it needs support? I don't wear mine every day either but I do wear a glove. I'll wear the sleeve when my arm is achy or heavy or when I'm going to be more active than normal.  I have found that after I've had it on and then take it off my arm can ache a bit. My CLT said that can be the ventricular flow through out the arm. The blood is pumping more easily through the arm. Have any of you heard this? I hope the night sleeve does wonders for me too. Just waiting for it to come back with some adjustments to it.

As for the jammies, I've thought about cutting sleeves off mine too but just couldn't bring myself to it as well. That's why I asked what you all do. Maybe I'll buy cheap comfy long shirt tees and cut the arm off those. Then I'll buy cute jammie pant or shorts to wear?