Heard on Morning Edition
After Virginia Harrod was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer in 2014, she had a double mastectomy. Surgeons also removed 16 lymph nodes from under her armpit and the area around her breast, to see how far the cancer had spread and to determine what further treatment might be needed. Then she underwent radiation therapy.
As it turned out, the removal of those lymph nodes, along with the radiation, put Harrod at risk for another disorder — lymphedema, a painful and debilitating swelling of the soft tissue of the arms or legs, and/or an increased vulnerability to infection.
The lymph system problem she developed months after her surgery was a direct result of her lifesaving cancer treatment.
"Cancer was a piece of cake," Harrod says. "It was the lymphedema that almost killed me."
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