Holly's Notes and Condition

1st Appt with Danielle, PT, CLT for Treatment

Nov 16th - I had gotten a call that 'Danielle', had a cancellation and that an appt was available on Friday morning - I took it. 'Danielle' is a physical therapist and also a certified lymphedema specialist. She is young woman, who has been working at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach for the last 6 years. Gina had recommended her and Gina is very protective of her patients.

I brought her up to speed on my case history and she read my chart. She took measurements of my right arm and said that it has gotten even smaller - a good thing, meaning that it is not retaining lymphatic fluids. I told her that I felt quite swollen on the right side of my chest and the underside of my right breast. I had worn my Belisse compression bra all morning to try and help keep things moving. Gina and Danielle trained at the same college and learned manual lymphatic drainage massage techniques from the same group of specialists and they both worked at Hoag Hospital together. However, I noted (2) places where her technique is different than Gina's - she does her lymphatic massage, especially over my cording a bit more vigorously and deeper than Gina and when she is concerned about something it shows on her face, like her concern over the slightly red color and warm feel of my right breast, in contrast to my left breast - she said, 'if it gets any redder and congested, to get into the doctor and onto antibiotics'. I told her I see Dr Curcio on Tuesday - good. My range of motion was somewhat limited when we began, by the time she had finished working on me, really concentrating on my right arm again and then finishing with my chest wall, down underneath my arm - I had gained another 15 degrees of range of motion both when holding my arm straight up over my head and then when holding it out and up to the side. I will see her again on Monday morning.
It was a good first treatment with her.

posted by Holly @ 4:33 PM