The Mummy

I am finally catching up after the delightful chaos of the holidays. We celebrated Christmas and welcomed Dustin into our family all in the same week. And we drove home in whiteout conditions across much of Wyoming (never again!). What a way to end the year.

Once everyone left for the West and our house was relatively quiet again, Mom began medical treatment for the swelling in her legs. Despite seeing our family doctor for years and also being treated by a pain management physician, no one suggested that Mom is afflicted with lymphoedema. At the first visit, her new pain management specialist immediately referred Mom to the Methodist lymphoedema center for care. So three times each week Mom undergoes compression bandaging to treat the swelling in her legs ... left leg now and right leg to follow. A good web page with information about lymphoedema and Mom's treatment is at http://www.lymphoedemasupport.com/treatment.php

I am being training in how to do the compression bandaging and therapeutic massage. I am still new at this, so it takes me over an hour each time I go through the wrapping. Here are some photos to illustrate parts of the process.

After applying a generous layer of lotion, Mom puts on a stockinette against the skin. This is a fine mesh stocking that goes from her toes all the way to her groin and protects the skin from the wrapping materials. Here is what the stockinette looks like (none of these photos are of Mom!).




Next a narrow gauze pad is used to wrap all the toes individually. I couldn't find an image of this for toes, but you can see what it looks like from this image of wrapped fingers.

Mom's foot is then covered by several layers of a very soft, fluffy cotton padding and a foam pad on the front of the ankle. Then a layer of thin gray foam pad six inches wide is spiral wrapped around the leg all the way from the ankle to the groin.

The foam is covered in several layers of very long compression bandages, seven bandages in all, from the toes to the groin. The compression bandages look like Ace bandages, but they don't stretch. The purpose is to provide a pressure gradient (greater pressure at the ankle and lessening pressure moving up the leg) to help the lymph system operate efficiently and circulate the fluid that otherwise collects in the lower leg, ankle, and foot.

Here is a look at the final product. You can see the stockinette pulled down over the top part of the compression bandages, which go all the way up to the groin. And if you look closely you can also see the toes wrapped individually. Once wrapped, Mom wears this for 2-3 days before going back to the center where she removes everything, washes up, and gets wrapped again!