We know that the disease lipedema involves an impairment of fat cell distribution and deposition (hyperplasia or hyperproliferation) and that this usually occurs symmetrically in the body, so in both legs (and sometimes both arms). You might hear about fat cells being called by their clinical name, adipocytes. But how does lipedema become a fluid …
A big thank-you to the folks at Healwell.org for reaching out and asking if I’d like to draw this one up. Check out all the great things they do in hospital and care setting massage here, donate to their work, and for those who want to learn more about metastasis and massage, they have an …
How Does Cancer Metastasize? Think Skeevy, Sketchy Club Dudes Read More »
I’d like to thank Jodi Winicour, PT, CMT, CLT-LANA – an instructor at Klose Training & Consulting, LLC – for this great analogy about fibrosis and lymphatic flow. If you have moderate to severe lymphedema, and your tissue has become dense and hardened, that fibrosis is going to affect how easily the lymph can flow …
I’d like to thank Dr. Dhruv Singhal, Director of Lymphatic Surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center here in Boston, for sharing his brilliant “train” analogy for lymphedema and for his collaboration in making this latest cartoon happen. Imagine your heart as the biggest train station in the world. There are red tracks with red …
Lymphedema and Surgical Treatment Options – The Train Analogy Read More »
The question: Why does my GI tract sometimes make so much noise when I’m in my massage session? The answer: There’s actually a fabulous word for that sound. Borborygmus. Go ‘head, say it again in your head. It kinda sounds like a dinosaur or some badass Transformer, but it’s the technical term for “intestinal rumbling …
The question: “But I only had one lymph node removed when they did my sentinel node biopsy. How could I possibly develop lymphedema if just one little node is gone?” The answer: Well, let’s take a quick-and-dirty look at how those nodes are distributed and how they work. We’ve got lymph nodes spread around our …
I used to draw cartoons as a kid, through high school and college, and sometimes during my corporate career. I realized during massage therapy school that I retained information about the human body best when instructors characterized different parts and made it funny. I talk about human physiology like this with my clients in my …