If you've caught yourself looking down at your ankles after a long day and wondering why they suddenly seem puffier than usual, it's not your imagination. Maybe your rings are harder to take off by bedtime. Or your favorite sandals feel tighter than they did in June. You wake up after a fun weekend away expecting to feel refreshed, but instead your body feels heavy, achy, and sluggish. By late July, we hear versions of these same concerns almost every day in the clinic. "I've actually been...

After a lumpectomy, mastectomy, reconstruction, or flat closure, many women hear some version of: “Everything looks great.” And often, surgically, it does. But that does not always mean the body feels recovered. Breast cancer surgery can affect far more than the incision site. Survivors may experience chest wall tightness, scar restriction, shoulder stiffness, swelling, axillary cording, pain, fatigue, capsular contracture, sleep disruption, chemo-induced neuropathy, anxiety, or a sense that...

After breast or chest surgery, many people are told that massage can help with stiffness, swelling, or discomfort. While that may be true in a general sense, post-mastectomy and post-surgical care is not interchangeable with standard massage. The body after surgery is different. Anatomy has changed. Tissues respond differently. The nervous system may be more sensitive or guarded. Supporting recovery safely requires training that goes far beyond adjusting pressure or working more gently....