Hello, I’m going to show you now, how to do some lymphatic drainage for your arm. If you’ve had surgery for breast cancer you may have had some lymph nodes removed. Lymphatic drainage is an important part of prevention of lymphoedema, but also management. It’s something you can do yourself at home.
We’re going to start with our buckets. Under the armpit, we’ve got a whole bunch of lymph nodes there and even if you’ve had some removed you still most likely going to be draining to this area. So, using a flat hand coming in under the armpit, 5 to 10 just slow moderate pressure circles. I’m not digging in with my fingers like this. Flat hand, just moderate pressure, thinking about emptying those buckets. Then we’re going to come up to the collarbone. Just pop in behind the collarbone, a couple of fingers, moderate pressure, gentle circles, just emptying those buckets there.
Once we’ve done that, we’re ready to start working on the arm. We’re going to start at the top of the arm. You might find using some cream makes it a little bit easier to sort of glide, but I want you to think about stretching the skin. So, we’re working on the fluid that sits just below the skin and we’re aiming to move it up towards these buckets. Come on the outside of the arm, aiming up towards these nodes, behind the collar bone. Or we can come under the armpit, and working on the upper, gently massaging up towards the armpit. You might come around a little bit this way towards those nodes. We’re starting at the top of the arm and we just keep working our way further down the arm.
It’s about clearing that pathway, then we can work a little bit further down, always working up towards our buckets, coming a little bit further, a little bit further. We just keep doing that until we work our way all way down to the hand and then we’re coming all the way up. You can do this again with some cream. You can do it sitting, you can do it in the shower, you can do it with your arm up like this and dragging the hand down. Just thinking about gliding that fluid down towards those buckets.
After about maybe 10-15 minutes worth of working on the arm, you’re going to come back to those buckets, give them an empty, couple of fingers behind the collar bone and with a flat hand underneath the armpit, emptying those buckets five to ten circles on each. Give your shoulders a nice big roll and take three to five slow, big deep abdominal breaths, which just helps to move that lymphatic system and get it all moving and flushing, which enables the arm to drain more easily. Then you’re done. If you’re doing it on the other side, you would just repeat exactly what I’ve said and take it on to the other side.
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