Lymphedema: A Breast Cancer Patient's Guide to Prevention and Healing

Rating:
Summary: Book aids with treatment
Review: I found this book incredibly helpful. After two years of having my arm so swollen it would not fit into many of my clothes, I found this book. It showed what exercises to do, how to do self-massage, how to bandage, and where to get help. It is complete with pictures that illustrate each step. I think this book is essential for anyone who's had treatment for breast cancer.

Rating:
Summary: Finding Help
Review: I found this book very informative and comforting. It not only tells about lymphedema, about why it starts and what can be done about it, but the book has the stories of other women with lymphedema and shows what they are doing for their condition. It helped make me aware that I am not the only person to have had problems after I was treated for breast cancer. Since my therapy for lymphedema I have used this book to maintain my arm's shape. I think the book is a wonderful guide. It was a real relief for me to find this book.

Rating:
Summary: Book Helps Person in Small Town
Review: I have had lymphedema for several years. I live outside a very small town which does not have a person who knows how to treat lymphedema. I found this book on Amazon.com and it gave me information that helped find a therpist in another city.

I must travel nearly two hundred miles to reach my therapist, but with her help and with the information in this book, the swelling has gone down and my arm is almost back to normal. In another couple of weeks I should not need to see the therapist any longer. Because of the detailed information in this book, and because of the therapist's instructions I know how to bandage my arm, what kind of sleeve to wear on it, exercises I should and should not do, even what kind of breathing helps my arm not swell.

I don't know what I would have done if this book had not been available. I wish it had been written years ago when my swelling began. I recommend it very highly.

Rating:
Summary: Important, life-saving reading for women at risk.
Review: Lymphedema: A Breast Cancer Patient's Guide To Prevention And Healing describes the many options women have. It emphasizes active self-help and provides extensive information on preventing lymphedema; reducing lymphedema through professional therapy; reducing lymphedema through exercise and self-massage; selecting and using wraps and compression garments; eating right to manage lymphedema; finding emotional support; and locating resources for additional help. Jeannie Burt (a former lymphedema sufferer) and Gwen White (a practicing physical therapist specializing in the treatment of women with lymphedema) have collaborated to write an informative, "reader friendly" text, enhanced with more than fifty illustrations and encouraging stories of women who have dealt with lymphedema successfully using the methods described. Lymphedema is highly recommended reading for anyone suffering from or at risk for breast cancer.

Rating:
Summary: Great Stuff
Review: My wife and I found lots of great help in this book. Detailed enough for our academic minds. Honest enough to be helpful in a difficult time. And staightforward enough to be understandable. We showed it to our therapist who liked it enough to include it in her list of resources for others with lymphedema. We highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Great Stuff
Review: My wife and I found lots of great help in this book. Detailed enough for our academic minds. Honest enough to be helpful in a difficult time. And staightforward enough to be understandable. We showed it to our therapist who liked it enough to include it in her list of resources for others with lymphedema. We highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: A disappointing rehash
Review: This book might be helpful as a starting point for someone who knows nothing about lymphedema. It read like a tired retread of the information the American Cancer Society dispenses for free. Since I experience a direct correlation between protein intake and arm swelling, I was hoping the authors would go into far greater diet detail than their short chapter on nutritional supplements. Save your money -- there is nothing new here.