Easing the pain S-T Photo by LaKeith Kennedy Melinda Garcia, physical therapist at West Texas Rehabilitation Center, gives Ruth Roberts a massage to help decrease the pain and swelling associated with lymphedema.
Massage is one component in a treatment known as manual lymph drainage.
When Ruth Roberts beat breast cancer 22 years ago, she thought the worst was behind her, and it was. But the trouble wasn t over. Five years ago, Roberts was diagnosed with a disfiguring, often painful condition called lymphedema. As a result of the mastectomy she d had many years before, Roberts eventually began to suffer from secondary lymphedema, the swelling of a limb or other part of the body that sometimes occurs when lymph nodes and vessels in the armpit or groin have been removed or damaged by surgery or radiation, or have been blocked by a tumor. The size of Roberts left arm increased by nearly one-third and the skin became dry.