shoulder replacement surgery on lymphedema arm

surfdreams,
Ouch, that's horrible, and you are really in a lymphedema pickle. I am currently recovering from shoulder repair surgery on my non-LE side, and even that is giving me LE challenges, so I can certainly imagine the issues you are facing.

You can do ball squeezes with your hand, which might help a tiny bit, at least to minimize migration of fluid to your hand. I'm finding that the immobilizing sling given to me does a poor job of supporting the wrist, and I was getting hand swelling from having the hand dangle too much, too often. So I put a cardboard extender inside the sling to better support my hand, and I wear one of my gauntlets sometimes. You should be able to wear your gauntlet or glove, right? Even if you cannot wear the sleeve.

We have a lot of lymphatic vessels that run in the area of the shoulder, and I am experiencing swelling in my (diep reconstructed) breast, which 'til now had not shown any trace of LE. The breast drains in the direction of the shoulder, so I'm not surprised that swelliing and inflammation from my surgery continues to reduce that drainage. I'm six weeks out, and I get the breast/truncal swelling on my non-LE side after PT and within an hour of doing my at-home range of motion exercises. If that is also your experience--swelling migrating to the trunk--you might benefit from a compression tee shirt, which will help under the axilla that you are not currently able to move around for drainage benefits. No way to don a compression shirt over your head, of course, and my solution was to ask GO Travelwear to make me a custom compression shirt with a zipper down the front. It has a velcro strip at the very bottom to make it easier to hold the sides together and then feed the zipper, and the compression has made a huge difference for me. If that idea appeals to you, PM me and I'll give you some additional thoughts on the shirt design and changes you can request if you ask GO to make one or more of them for you.

As for not wearing a sleeve, that's a problem with no obvious solution. If you are removing your arm from the sling for bathing, to do pendulum exercises, or if allowed to let it be free but stationery when sitting quietly, is there a way you could position it on pillows that would permit you to use your good hand to perform MLD on your LE arm? The deep belly breathing is certainly possible, and your node stimulation, and moving fluid across to the other side.

I really, really feel for you because shoulder injury and the repair surgery bring long and hard recovery, and it's painful too. So stay on top of your pain meds --pain draws lymph--and do keep us posted on how you are doing.

Giant hugs coming from me!

Carol

The compression pump has a sleeve, I THINK not tight and glued to your arm like our normal sleeve, but a sleeve nonetheless. I've never used a pump nor seen the sleeve up close, so hopefully someone using one will think about whether you could get your arm in it. Do you have help at home? I'm wondering if, when you're allowed to lay the arm straight, a helper could get the pump sleeve on you. You do have to do some manual clearance of the trunk before using the pump, and that implies using your surgery arm forr some of that.

Binney4 has bilateral LE and she uses a pump (and she's a marvel of knowledge of LE), so perhaps PM her to ask what she thinks.

sending hugs and prayers your way! I've had shoulder surgeries both before and after my diagnosis. Never had a problem with respect to lymphedema. I was extremely concerned that I might develop it, but my physician assured me that I would do well and I did. I feel your pain! I couldn't sleep at all before my surgery. I shook all day and night from the pain.....I wish you well with surgery and I wish you even more wellness afterwards! 💞

Sending hugs...I am coping with a shoulder injury too, from an accident. 4 months of PT have not helped at all, and I am so nervous to see a surgeon. I sure will keep goor thoughts for you...please let us know what is going on and what answers you find. Denise

surfdreams, I was at PT yesterday for my own post-surgery shoulder issues, and I described your dilemma (my CLT is in the same rehab practice where I'm doing PT). Universal opinion (we had quite a group chat about this) is that it would be best if you could schedule your post-surgical therapy with a PT who is also a CLT or works closely with one. They also were mortified that your LE therapist wants you to wait four weeks for a return to therapy. But the best part of the conversation was that they wanted me to pass along to you that the particular shoulder replacement you're getting typically brings with it a relatively easy recovery, meaning not a walk in the park, but usually much easier, faster, and much less painful than patients expect. Let's hope that you have exactly that experience.