On April 14, 2016 I lost my job of 14 years and I was devastated. I was already overweight and on top of that I have lymphedema. My anxiety level reached a new level. I was taking 14 medications and had 3 heart attacks within 4 years. I was only in my early 40's. Since then God has blessed me to get permanent disability payments, and Medicaid; which paid for me to have the duodenal switch surgery. I had my surgery on March 28, 2017. I started out at 467 and currently I weigh 313! I'm no longer on any medications, except vitamins and lasix. The swelling in my legs and ankles are nearly gone. I feel and look so different. It took 6 months for me to finally see and realize how well I looked.

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Wow, you look great! Congratulations on your success. Keep up the good work.

Keep up the good fight, you look so good.

Wow! You look amazing!

On April 14, 2016 I lost my job of 14 years and I was devastated. I was already overweight and on top of that I have lymphedema. My anxiety level reached a new level. I was taking 14 medications and had 3 heart attacks within 4 years. I was only in my early 40's. Since then God has blessed me to get permanent disability payments, and Medicaid; which paid for me to have the duodenal switch surgery. I had my surgery on March 28, 2017. I started out at 467 and currently I weigh 313! I'm no longer on any medications, except vitamins and lasix. The swelling in my legs and ankles are nearly gone. I feel and look so different. It took 6 months for me to finally see and realize how well I looked.
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So happy for you!! You look great!!!

So happy for you hon!!! Keep rocking it!

You’re beautiful! May the good health continue!

Fantastic you look great, I though if you had lymphademia then your legs and ankles would always be swollen. I think I might have it but not sure, very encouraging to know that the swelling might go. Well done.

Wonderful!!! You are a true inspiration!!!!

7 minutes ago, Jeaniered said:

Fantastic you look great, I though if you had lymphademia then your legs and ankles would always be swollen. I think I might have it but not sure, very encouraging to know that the swelling might go. Well done.

I was just reading an article that talked about this. What it said is there are 2 types of lymphadema. One is due to a mechanical defect in the lymph-pump system. Basically the fluid accumulates because the pump that removes it is broken. That is a type that is less likely to respond to weight loss.

The second type is pretty much caused by being heavy. The heavier we are, the more volume of fluid that goes into the legs... the more fluid in the legs, the more has to be pumped out. After a certain point, the pumps get overwhelmed and can't keep up with the amount of fluid. Since the pumps are still working, weight loss removes the excess burden, and the condition gets better.

The article didn't really go into how to tell which one you may have.. but it would seem to follow that if the condition only showed up after weight gain, then there is a decent chance that it's the second type.

This is all based on a single article that I came across. I'm in no way an expert on this condition, but hopefully it's true that in some cases the condition can get better!