Now here's a daft question for you!

[cleo]

Have l leg lymph after surgery/radio. I look at my tanned 'garden' R leg and the always stockinged L....looking unhealthy and pasty white....and though I know that strong heat etc is not good for the limb surely some exposure to weather and sunshine can only help skin health?

[patoco]

Hey Cleo

Actually, that's a really good question!

There's a couple things to consider.

First, to get that exposure, you would need to unwrap or "un"garment the leg. That would cause an increase in swelling that is counter productive.

Secondly, you would have to be extremely careful not to get a sunburn on that leg. That would be a real disaster. If you were in say a chaise lounge and had the leg up, then it might be ok to have the compression garment off, but you would still need to be careful of the sun.

BTW, as odd as it sounds, we actually have a couple members who got lymphedema from severe sunburn too. All it takes is to have an impaired or "at risk" lymph system with a triggering event to have full blown LE.

Pat

[cleo]

Many thanks Pat. That was a very easy decision. I am not a chaise lounge person and had no idea that sunburn could trigger lymphedema. I will stay with the status quo! Also made me realise that I may have 'lymphedema awareness' but know very little about the condition as a whole.