Mice Re-Grow Lymphatics!

No, I am not making this up.

Check it out here:

The VEGF-C therapy To Restore Lymphatic Vessel And Lymph Node Function

Pretty exciting stuff, huh? My only real questions are about the timetable. If I understood the brief right, they are having to be very super cautious because of the possibility of cancer metastasis.

I would like to know more about potential application of this research with regard to hereditary lymphedema, both in terms of being more aggressive about the research, and potential complications. It's a genetic therapy. It has proven successful in mice who previously had genetically normal lymphatics.

My first question is whether or not it would even work with a patient/animal/subject that was born with abnormal lymphatics. Then I'd love to know about various aspects of that - does it only work in patients who were born without vessels in parts of their body or can it help those whose lymphatics are too big or too small, too?

Like all good research it engenders as many questions as it answers. Thanks and props to Pat at Lymphedema People who posted the original link on the Advocates for Lymphedema Yahoo! Group.

Searching for a Good Cause

Check out GoodSearch.com. It is a standard search engine, powered by Yahoo!, except...

They split the ad revenue for ads sold on their searches between themselves and a variety of schools and charities.

The Lymphatic Research Foundation IS on the list. So I am encouraging anyone with a vested interest in finding a cure for lymphedema to go to GoodSearch.com, choose the LRF, and search away!

After all, those little pennies add up, and may just help find a cure!

Mixed Emotions

Any advance in lymphedema research is good. It is, honest.

This article talks about advances in preventing arm lymphedema in breast cancer patients. Which is awesome, I wouldn't wish LE on anyone. But...

Let's face it, LE has been around a while, all the family studies show that. The reality is that most of the research funding that has been thrown at LE has been thrown that way by the immensely powerful breast cancer lobby. It's selfish of me, I know, but if they find a way to keep breast cancer patients from getting LE, I'm worried that it will spell the end of quality/quantity research funding.

I'm already more upset than I can possibly explain that breast cancer patients get all the LE treatment they need and my poor baby, who simply had the misfortune to be born with this condition has to fight for recognition and treatment every single day. At least BC survivors got to have a life without LE. I know, I know, it's terrible, and not PC, particularly since my stepsister is a 2-time BC survivor, but I can't help it, it's how I feel, political correctness be damned.

New Research!

http://www.lymphaticresearch.org/newsarticles/2006_07_17_07_50_53.html

Check this out on the LRF site! This article is about 6 months old, so it is possible they are moving into human testing now! How exciting is this?

(note to self: send LRF some more money!)

N ew Links

Lotsa talk on the ChildrenwithLymphedema group lately about garments and the like, so I added a new section of links for garments and wrapping supplies.

Don't Know What to Think

Shortly after my last post J wore her stockings all day, under her shoes.

Wow!

Poor thing, her feet sweat something fierce and her stockings were just nasty when we got 'em off that night, wet and smelly with that funky crunchy texture you sometimes get in the toes of pantyhose on hot days when the sweat dries. Nappy.

I put em in the laundry room to be washed. Then she went to her grandparents' house for 10 days and I forgot about them. Then they got buried under a pile of other hand-washables and forgotten some more.

I *finally* got them laundered this weekend. She saw them hanging on the sweater rack to dry and decided to put them on yesterday (they were dry, just waiting to be dealt with).

She got them on all by herself. Completely correctly except that she had them on the wrong legs...Maybe it's just my perspective of trying to put things on her being harder than her trying to put things on herself, but should it have been this easy? We measured for them in Dec, got them back with corrections right around New Year's and I know she's gotten taller since then. Shouldn't they be harder to put on, not easy?

*sigh*

I don't think I'm ever gonna figure this out...

It's a Stick Up!

Okay, that was totally a stretch as I went striving for a cute post title and decided to settle for the lame one above.

BUT, I have news!!! Things are sticking, UP. Her stockings.

The secret ingredient? My washing machine. I washed her stockings over the weekend, and now they are staying up largely on her own. Woo-hoo!

Either that or they're staying up cuz she had free feet while they were in the wash and drying (on my sweater rack) so she's puffier than she was before and that's why they're staying up... But I prefer to think it's the former.