Susan's 2nd and 3rd weeks at the Foeldi Clinic

For those of you wondering how Susan has been getting on at the clinic, here below her updates from Lymphoedema Ireland

Weeks 2 and 3 from the Foldi Clinic

On 16/10/2017By Lymphoedema IrelandIn Blog, Your Stories

Susan’s bandages and foam pieces

Apologies for the delay in posting but I do have a good reason. On Saturday October 7th, on a day out in Freiburg with both legs bandaged, I fell and fractured my left elbow. It’s not bad, a hairline fracture, but I’m in a cast for 2 weeks and typing one handed isn’t easy.

So now 3 limbs out of 4 are bandaged which has made the last 11 days challenging to say the least. The weather has been great, 26c today, but it’s not easy walking in that heat. I was sent from Foldi to the Helios Clinic in Neustadt for an X-ray on my elbow. I was in, x-rayed, and cast on in 50 minutes. Pretty impressive.

Now back to my lymphoedema. I’m so happy with my treatment and every day my legs are a little smaller and less fibrotic. The lymph drainage massage is not like the soft butterfly touches we hear of so often. My therapist really massages very strongly even to the point where I have to ask her to go a little easier. She told me that when she was being trained by Herr Prof Foldi he told her to always listen to the tissue as she massaged. So if the tissue was fibrotic and hard then the corresponding massage had to be strong to break down the fibrosis. Also my right leg, which is my worst, has been slower to respond so over the last few nights, she asked me to remove the very top bandage just before I go to bed. She felt that this might somehow release the lymph to flow as the pressure from the bandages decreased. This has really worked for me, so it might be something some of you could try.

I’m really having a love hate relationship with Foldi. Apart from the treatment I do love the scenery, weather, a brilliant therapist, days out to great places and meeting people from all over the world. I hate the food, 5.30am starts, the very long weekends and missing home.

So 12 more days from tomorrow until I’m home! I’m attaching a photo of all the foam pieces and bandages that go on my 2 legs every day and all weekend. No pain no gain 😂