The Case of the Lateral-Limb Lymphedema

Updated on March 19, 2014

Sally is a 62-year-old woman who had a mastectomy for stage IIB left-sided breast cancer. She had preoperative chemotherapy followed by the mastectomy, at which time she also had a prophylactic simple mastectomy of her right breast. She completed postsurgical radiation therapy six months ago and is in for a routine follow-up appointment. You begin to prepare her right arm to draw blood for her lab tests, but she stops you, saying that you cannot draw blood from either arm and she doesn’t want it taken from her foot.

What Would You Do?

Read more at the Oncology Nursing Society website.

+ posts

Throughout the year, our writers feature fresh, in-depth, and relevant information for our audience of 40,000+ healthcare leaders and professionals. As a healthcare business publication, we cover and cherish our relationship with the entire health care industry including administrators, nurses, physicians, physical therapists, pharmacists, and more. We cover a broad spectrum from hospitals to medical offices to outpatient services to eye surgery centers to university settings. We focus on rehabilitation, nursing homes, home care, hospice as well as men’s health, women’s heath, and pediatrics.