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>>> Joan Shulmistras: Good skin care and nail care for the lymphedema patient is important.
In that it is, one of the things that you want to help to reduce the risk for lymphedema,
but specifically keeping the hands clean, using the antibacterial soap, using lotions,
making sure that you don’t cut your cuticles, meaning taking care that you are not making
any breaks in the skin, in order to help reduce the risk for any bacteria to get in or any
fungal infections to develop.
It has not been shown scientifically that this is true but based on antidotal, looking
at lot of different patients that have come through, that this is an important factor
to consider.
We want to reduce the possibility for infection and by keeping good skincare, making sure
the hands are dried, and not only talking about nail care but let’s look up to the
arm. Even up into the axilla area, making sure that you are drying that area after you
are washing, even around the breast area because good skincare involves all of those areas
– anywhere that you have a fold in the skin, there’s a possibility for bacteria to build
up.
If bacteria builds up and you have some kind of a break in the skin, you can possibly end
up with an infection and we want to try to reduce those risks. So when you are clean,
dry carefully, dry thoroughly and put lotion on to keep the skin from cracking and drying
out.