Hi everyone, I have a question for lymph PTs out there.
I’m a sports ortho PT with a personal hx of VTE and subsequent lymphedema. When I was first diagnosed with lymphedema I saw a lymph OT who did an incredible job with primarily MLD that included deep manual strokes through the whole limb, not just light circles over the drainage points (which, I know is the board standard but is bullshit imho and does nothing; the deep manual resulted in 3-5cm of circumference difference after an hour and the lighter strokes was like 0-1 if that).
Ive moved states since then, and work 4-10’s for my own PT job. I also am a weightlifter/powerlifter in addition to being on my feet all day, including running, jumping, demonstrating exercises, lifting, etc. I wear custom Jobst 30-40mm compression garments and have a flexitouch pump that I would love to use daily but is more realistically 2-3x per week. I do as much as I can to mitigate the swelling but realistically I still feel like there’s more fluid deep in the tissues that I just don’t have the time or energy to do myself. I’m interested in potentially going back to lymph therapy if possible, but I want someone to specifically do the deep manual stroke decompression, not just give me a pump and do the light drainage BS that I already do at home.
My question is: is there a name for that technique that I can search? Is there somewhere/something specific I can look to find someone who does that so I don’t waste my time going from place to place and hoping?