Wellspring

In This Issue

• These Are Curious Times
• A Changing Arsenal
• A Shocking Diagnosis for a Man
• A One-in-a-Million Breast Cancer Diagnosis
• She Knows the Value of Mammograms
• Mastectomy Was Her Decision
• She's Making Each Day Count
• Grandmother's Strategy: Fight and Pray
• Clinical Trials Advance Treatment Options
• Breast Cancer Surgery Options
• Radiation Therapy Can Keep Cancer from Returning
• Stages of Breast Cancer
• Join the Army of Women Helping Breast Cancer Research
• Ten Cancer Myths
• Breast Cancer Death Rates on the Decline
• Lymphedema Management Program
• Understanding Breast Cancer
• Breast Cancer Getting the Facts, Finding Hope
• NorthBay Cancer Center Earns Approval with Six Commendations
• Relay Rallies Funds for American Cancer Society
• Digital Mammography Now Available at Women's Imaging Center
• Cardiac Surgery Has Successful Start
• First Mended Hearts Chapter Forms
• Saving a Heart of Gold
• NorthBay Awarded Chest Pain Center Designation
• NorthBay Health Care Launches Heart & Vascular Interventional Program
• Samer Kanaan, MD Joins Heart & Vascular Surgical Team
• A Dream With Wings
• NorthBay Invests in Green Technology
• Joint Replacement Program Celebrates Second Anniversary
• A Lifetime of Giving
• Wellspring Garners Publication Awards
• NorthBay Guild 'Care Carts' Visit Patients
• Local Teens Take on Nurse Camp
• Genentech's STRIDE Shares Gift with NorthBay's ABC Clinic
• NorthBay's Web Site Has New Look
• Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Celebrates 24 Years
• Experts Team Up for NorthBay Lecture Series
• Welcome New Physicians Fall 2009
• Community Health Education Classes

Lymphedema Management Program

September 21, 2009 · No Comments

A program designed to improve the quality of life for lymphedema patients is now available through NorthBay Rehabilitation Services at Vacaville Millennium Sportsclub.

Lymphedema is an accumulation of lymphatic fluid that can cause abnormal swelling anywhere in the body, but most typically in an arm or leg. It develops when lymphatic vessels are damaged or lymph nodes are removed or missing.

Surgical procedures or radiation therapy in the treatment of breast cancer can cause lymphedema if the lymph nodes are damaged or removed.

"Removal of the lymph nodes impairs the lymphatic fluid from flowing on its normal pathway throughout the body," explains Heather Rose, a certified lymphedema therapist at NorthBay Rehabilitation Services.

The goals of the program are to reduce the volume of the edema, improve the health of the tissue, and to teach patients how to maintain the treatment effects for the rest of their lives, she says.

Initial treatments are daily and include manual lymphatic drainage (a gentle massage-like technique designed to assist the transport of lymphatic fluid out of the limb), compression therapy, skin care, exercise and patient education.

For more information about the Lymphedema Management Program, call (707) 624-7470.

Tags: Cancer