Lymph Love: Supporting Your Lymphatic System After Cancer
If you’ve experienced swelling, puffiness, or tightness after surgery or radiotherapy, your lymphatic system may be under stress. And you are not alone.
The lymphatic system plays a vital role in your immune system, fluid balance, and healing– but cancer treatment can throw it off course.
Let’s take a dive in and see what it does, what can go wrong, and what you can do to support it gently.
What is the Lymphatic System?
Short summary – It’s a quiet but powerful network of vessels and nodes that:
• Drain excess fluid from tissues
• Helps fight infection and inflammation
• Carries waste products and immune cells
Unlike your blood, lymph does not have a pump. It relies on movement, breath, and muscles contraction to keep flowing.
What to know more? What is the lymphatic system with no fancy words
What Happens During Cancer Treatment
Surgery (especially lymph node removal), radiotherapy, or scarring can block or slow lymphatic flow, tht can cause swelling and pufficness and sometimes a chronic condition known as Lymphoedema–where you get swelling in the arms and legs ususally.
According to NHS England, around 1 in 5 people who have lymph node surgery for breast cancer are at risk of developing lymphoedema at some point.
What Helps the Lymph Flow?
• Manual Lymphatic Drainage (MLD)– a gentle, specialised massage that helps move lymph fluid– also known to be in credibly relaxing
• Breathwork– slow diaphragmatic breathing is especially useful
• Gentle Movement– like walking, stretching, light bouncing (like rebounding if able), pilates and yoga specialised lymphatic movement sequences
• Scar release and soft tissue work
“I have had lymphatic massage twice with Fiona 60 minutes and then 90 minutes. I have to say 90 minutes is amazing….. Slow, light touch, totally relaxing and trusting! Felt like I was being pampered in a very subtle way… On returning homeI wanted to drink loads of water and sleep… It was utterly wonderful! I would recommend it to anyone, especially if you do not like hard massage, this just made me melt into the couch! Thank you Fi as always.
“The body knows how to heal. Sometimes, it just needs a little help to get things moving.”
Supporting Your Body the Gentle Way
In my 6-week cancer-recovery-and-wellbeing-programme we touch on lymphatic movement and do lots of breathwork.
You can also book an MLD session with me to chat or to book message me fi@therapyinmotion.co
You do not need to suffer through swelling or tightness. There are things that help