A Chronicle
Authored by Anne from New Zealand

I was diagnosed with Lymphedema in my left leg in August 1985 and I wasn't told anything about treatment or what in fact Lymphedema was!!!! or what I should expect too happen.

I am now 45 years old I have lived with this terrible thing for 14 years I have had cellulitis for which I was given antibiotics told to go home and bed rest. I felt terrible but got through I don't know how. The only other treatment my GP gave me was frusemide twice daily for 10 years until I stopped taking them myself. Last year I was hospitalized because I had debilitating pain in my groin my GP couldn't find a pulse in my leg and it was cold to the touch, he feared blood clots I was sent to A & E they sent me for a scan which showed nothing. After some consultation by phone the registrar admitted me I was given a pethedene injection. In the morning when the surgeon came to see me he was very angry they had admitted me and said to me I should go home get on with it. I had lymphedema and things would certainly get much worse with the pain I was experiencing as well as the size of my leg and the only way that can be dealt with is by reduction surgery!!!!! I asked what he meant! He said cutting flesh from the joint to reduce it in side. He gave me a note to get a compression stocking and that was it, no follow-up, nothing. It has been that way for 14 years, no information whatsoever I do not know why the medical profession does not acknowledge this very debilitating disease.

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