Tell Us About Yourself:
My name is Dianne and I am 53 yrs old. I'm from Lacona, Iowa where I live on a farm with my husband. I am the school nurse for Southeast Warren Schools here and am the Rescue Chief for the volunteer Lacona Fire/EMS Department where I serve in both the fire and EMS capacity. I have three adult children, 3 grandkids with another on the way. I don't do "sitting still" well.
When were you diagnosed with lymphedema or found out that you were at-risk?
I had 4 lymph nodes removed during my lumpectomy for breast cancer. It was afterwards that I learned I would always be at risk for lymphedema.
How do you manage your lymphedema?
I do manual lymph massage every morning. I wear my sleeve if I fly, when helping on the farm, when I work out and do yoga, and when I go on rescue and fire calls. I also just started with a garment that I put on every night that does external lymph massage after having more trouble with lymphedema issues since this past fall.
Tips to thrive with lymphedema:
- Be smart about taking care of yourself and your activity. Your body is a new "different" now and you have to have a new mind set so you don't injure yourself or have lymphedema flare up.
- Read up on lymphedema so you know what's going with your body. Be kind to yourself and patient too.
Favorite LympheDIVAs design(s):
The colorful ones! The kids at my high school love all the different designs I have. I've gotten comments from ER staff when taking a patient in on rescue calls even on how cool looking my sleeve is.
Why did you choose LympheDIVAs?
My occupational therapist gave me the information about your company when I was getting ready to start radiation and needed to wear a sleeve daily. I decided that if I needed to wear one, it wasn't going to be boring beige:)