I have been chatting to a friend on the Macmillan forum about coping with lymphoedema. This unpleasant swelling occurs when lymph drainage is damaged by either radiotherapy or surgery. It can vary between a mild inconvenience to a painful hard to put up with and hard to manage condition. The earlier you tackle it the less likely it is to become a real pain.

These simple Exercises can be carried out either sitting or standing and each exercise should be repeated 5 times.

Standing or sitting in front of a mirror, carry out exaggerated vowel sounds (A, E, I, O U)

Shrug shoulders up and down.

Rotate shoulders in circles forwards and backwards.

Facing forward, gently turn head to look over left shoulder, return to the centre before turning to look over right shoulder.

5. Look downwards placing chin on chest and then gently stretch chin upwards.

When in bed sleep on at least 2 pillows.

MASSAGE

This isn’t like a deep muscle massage. It’s a combination of light, motions that stretch the skin and begin moving fluid to an area that has not been damaged and can drain more effectively.No oil or cream needed, simply dry hands and a light touch It’s not often that I post a picture of myself but I did this just to show how easy it is to move lymph to the lymph nodes behind your ears that often escape any damage.

So Ian (Rossi500) this is for you

Routine: Get into a routine.After treatment, when your long recovery starts one of the things you do is drink lots to get the mucous shifted and to keep your trashed mouth moist. So…….you do go to the loo a lot and I found this the ideal time to do my neck stroking. 50 strokes each side and in no time it was gone. Now and then my neck gets a bit puffy so a week of attention and it disappears.