But Mummies Like It, or We In Germany Have Already Discovered

After the massage, they wrap my legs up in bandages. The difference between my bandages and ace bandages is that ace bandages are stretchy. These bandages are not very elastic because they are designed not to give (also not to tighten up in one place and bind).

The bandages are wrapped tightly around my leg, but not too tight, just comfortably snug. They should be firm enough that they don't allow fluid to collect back in my leg between massage sessions.

The purpose of the bandages is twofold. One, it keeps the fluid from just running back down into my legs after the massage. If that happened every day would be like starting the treatment over again. And darlings if I was Katherine Hepburn and could live here all year around maybe that's what I'd do. But, as it is with the bandaging - everyday we start where we left off. Until all the fluid is gone. Then, for some reason, once the massage gets things moving the bandaging causes the fluid to continue to flow happily up and out. With some luck after a three week course of treatment my leg will show few signs of my condition.

Along the way we've found that that that adding "bumps" of foam rubber in key places softens hardened and recalcitrant pools of fluid and corrects trouble spots.

And when I say "we", I mean "me".

The application of foam rubber bumps in certain places was well known, and there's a layer of foam rubber strips under the bandage as this actively promotes the movement of the lymph fluid. But I pioneered the use of foam rubber "bumps" around the toes - a particular trouble spot for me and most folks with long-term primary lymphedema in the "lower extremities".

I've done this whole course of treatment once before. I was in a strip mall in Plano, Texas rather than a spa in Switzerland, but other than that it was the very same thing. (Actually, the quality of the treatment and the knowledge and the innovative go-to-itiveness of the fine folks at Healthtronix in Plano surpass the much vaunted Swiss quality in my experience - if I'm lying, I'm dying - though the view from the strip mall wasn't nearly as picturesque.) My therapist there was trained by the fine folks in Austria and educated me on all the ins and outs of the condition and it's treatment.

When I started putting extra lumps of foam around my toes, my therapist in Texas said, "Well that's a bit unorthodox - especially for the Germans, but it follows from what we already do. Try it and see if it works." And it did work. Yesterday when my German therapist at the Swiss spa asked me why I was smiling, I answered that it was because she was cutting up small pieces of foam and packing them around my toes. She said, "Ja, we in Germany have already discovered since the last pair of years that it helps also to apply foam to the toes like this." We? In Germany? Leave it to those Germans to take credit for my discovery in Plano.

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OK, I'll allow that we reached the same conclusion working independently. And, in the interest of accuracy, the spa (except for the lesbian PE teacher) is completely German speaking ... so the funny syntax would actually be on my quotes - but anyway ...

posted by Steve at 2/01/2006 08:37:00 PM

Meanwhile, Back at the Swiss Sanatorium

Did someone mention the sleep therapy?  Because, my therapy consists of hours of light, relaxing, nude massage.  The lymph system is a relatively sensitive network that lies mostly close to the skin.  Researchers in Austria and later in Germany developed the best known treatment for the condition of lymphedema (how lucky for me that I live in Switzerland in spitting distance of the leading researchers).  This treatment is called Manual Lymph Drainage and it's a very light massage that gets the fluid moving.

Since the whole system is interconnected the massage starts behind the ears with a very gentle circular motion.  Then the massage moves slowly downward (the fluid always slowly upward).  Since I experience swelling in the legs the massage eventually ends with motions designed to move the fluid out of the leg.  It's very important that the massage is mostly light - since the goal is to encourage healthy flow ... not disrupt it further. 

It's also very important to spend an adequate amount of time opening up the system away from the swollen area to make room - because if you start moving alot of fluid out of the limbs too quickly then it doesn't have any place to go.  In that case you get fluid backing up until it bursts out somewhere else, causing more damage.

Done properly the light massage may even (for the lucky ones) encourage the growth of new lymph channels which help alleviate the problem long term.

And done properly, I even sleep through it.
posted by Steve at 2/01/2006 08:01:00 PM

I've attempted to leave this blog in the state it was in early 2006 as a historical artifact, but Google broke my original Archive page. What you see above is a quick reconstruction to rebuild some archive functionality without altering the original blog layout (or researching too deeply into Blogspot).

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