Does Likelihood of Lymphedema Go Down Over Time?

Thanks everyone for your response on different gloves and sleeves. I have some shopping to do!

2yorkies - I had bilateral SNB at the time of BMX, 2 nodes removed from the left, 1 from the right. ALND surgery five weeks later on the right removed another 11 nodes from levels 1&2. I developed lymphedema bi-laterally after a body-wide swelling event during chemo, but my lymphedema is more advanced on the right. I am one of the small percentage that developed lymphedema from both SNB and ALND

Here's the article I knew I'd read somewhere:

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/869873?src=wnl...
Requires a free membership. Here's the key info:

"The time course for developing lymphedema depends on the type of breast cancer treatment, but the risk peaks between 24 and 36 months post therapy, regardless of treatment type, according to new research.

"Receipt of radiation therapy (RT) is also a key to the timing.

"Lymphedema develops earlier in patients who receive radiation, especially those receiving regional lymph node radiation," said the study's lead author, Susan McDuff, MD, PhD, a resident in radiation oncology at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center in Boston."...

"The timing of the risk appears to be the most significant within the first 2 to 3 years after treatment," summarized Dr McDuff."

There's one Australian study that says sleeves aren't needed for flights under 4.5 hours, which is what my PT tells me as well (possibly based on this study, but also clinical observation). If I'm doing more than one flight in a day, even if each is under 4.5, I wear sleeves and gauntlets.

You may be asking, what's magic about 4.5 hours? Is that a statistical cut-off point? No, it's the longest non-stop domestic flight in Australia.