Peau d’orange— lymphedema in breast/ chest?

Mps, hello and welcome!

I'm really sorry about the worries that have brought you here, but hope you'll find both help and encouragement on the boards here.

You are smart to insist on a biopsy for IBC, because you need the peace of mind in order to get your life back. But the truth is that peau d'orange is indeed a sign of breast LE. The redness you describe can indicate infection, which is why your doctor put you on antibiotics, but it too is a sign of breast LE even when there is no infection present. Lymphedema is an inflammatory condition, and in the breast in particular it can present as redness that does not go away with antibiotic treatment (simply because it's not an infection, its inflammation).

That said, if you have LE present, the risk of infection is high (bacteria thrive in the warm, protein-rich accumulation of stagnant lymph fluid--sigh!) So, especially since you're doing rads which can compromise your skin, you need to keep a sharp eye out for infection on top of everything else. The kind of infection most commonly associated with LE is cellulitis. Here's information about how to recognize it:

http://www.stepup-speakout.org/Emergencies_and_Med...

Okay, so what you need to know is that treatment of breast LE (which consists of Manual Lymph Drainage massage and wearing some compression) can not be done while you're doing rads, or until your skin heals following rads. So you have a way to go before you can begin to get that in order. But once the LE is treated it will both reduce the swelling and restore the skin texture and color. (Some women have a bit of lingering pinkness to the skin even once the LE is controlled.)

Here's more information about breast LE (which is also referred to as truncal LE):

http://www.stepup-speakout.org/breast_chest_trunck...

While you wait for LE treatment, there are some things you can do to help control it:

1. Stay really well hydrated--this helps keep the lymph fluid flowing.

2. Stop throughout the day and take a few deep abdominal breathes--this stimulates the largest lymphatic vessel in our bodies, which runs from shoulder to abdomen and can be pumped by the diaphragm.

3. As much as possible, take good care of the skin on your breast--ask your rads doc for help with any skin breaks or burns.

4. Gentle exercises act as a pump for your entire lymph system (there is no "heart" to pump lymph fluid through your body--muscle movement plus the structure and function of the vessels themselves do the pumping), so gentle arm stretches throughout the day will help. Just remember, no pain!

5. Speaking of pain, if you are having pain from the rads, do ask for help controlling it and stay on top of it--as a response to pain our bodies send emergency supplies of lymph fluid to the area. Just what you don't want!

Other women will be along soon with further suggestions, I'm sure, and to share their experiences. Hoping some of this helps to relieve your anxiety! Please keep us posted and let us know how you're doing.

Gentle hug,
Binney

MPS, Just thinking that if your cloths rub and bother you while healing then take a tee shirt and cut it straight up to make it jacket like and let it fly open.

Let the air and meds you put on heal without the tee rubbing. I did this whilst healing from rads. If someone comes just overlap the jacket for privacy. Shut the blinds to! I went shirtless in the house to while no one was home!

I'll repost the tai chi breather exercise which is easy to do and study's prove itmoves fluid. Look for it on another thread.

Ask that you have no bp or needles to that whole quadrant including arm and hand. Be insistent no matter what. It can trigger a le flare or infection and it sounds like your system is compromised.