If you are a breast cancer survivor or a survivor of any type of cancer, you must understand how to remove acid waste and excess proteins from your body on a regular basis. Whether your treatments finished yesterday or five years ago, you will benefit by improving your lymph flow and over all circulation to the breast.  Whether you have had minimal surgery to have a lump removed or a full mastectomy, the area needs to have good circulation to heal and stay healthy.

Chemotherapy drugs are meant to create a harsh cellular environment, while radiation creates scarring like an intense sunburn. Chemotherapy and radiation create enormous amounts of cellular waste that can congest the surgery area and limit circulation. When you have lymph nodes removed from the axilla there is a chance your arm can swell due to the nodes being removed, this can occur a day after surgery to 30 years or more after surgery. It just depends on when the other nodes and vessels become compromised. Decades ago breast cancer surgery was not as refined as it is today, there was much more Lymphedema after breast surgery. Steps are now taken to test lymph nodes to minimize damage in the area. Often the remaining surrounding nodes will help to keep the swelling under control, as time passes they can become filled with cellular waste and the arm begins swelling.

If you have medium to heavy swelling after breast surgery or node removal you need to be evaluated by a physician and see if you have Lymphedema. With the diagnosis of Lymphedema your insurance company is required to pay for a very specific Lymphedema Therapy that can last two weeks or more. The therapy consists of daily lymph drainage therapy and wrapping by a Lymphedema therapist to reduce the limb to normal.  On-going home care wrapping and exercise is required to keep the limb reduced.

If you have no swelling at this time, the goal is to keep it that way. One way to help is with regular self-lymphatic activation to keep the breast or surrounding tissue from swelling and becoming fibrotic. Fibrosis makes the breast area hard due to the accumulation of cellular waste and fibrin. Activating the lymphatic system  helps to detox fibrin and cellular waste from the area. It also helps to promote a healthy immune response by circulating white blood cells (lymphocytes, monocytes and macrophages) to scavenge infectious disease and foreign materials from the body. Activating your lymphatic system helps you take steps to gain control over your future health.

Copyright ©2011 John Ossipinsky