This Is a Deeply Painful Post to Write

I'm not where I need to be.

Did you know there’s a two-second test that can easily be administered to diagnose lymphedema? It’s called the Stemmer’s Sign and it costs absolutely nothing for a doctor to perform. It requires no special tools and it can be done anywhere.

You can even do it for yourself right now.

All you do is pinch the second toe (or middle finger) at the right spot to see if you can pinch the skin alone. If you can, that’s a negative Stemmer’s sign. If you can’t pinch the without also grabbing the fatty tissue beneath it, that’s a positive Stemmer’s Sign which tells you that an individual’s lymphatic system has been definitively damaged to the point of having lymphedema.

While a negative Stemmer’s Sign cannot rule out all cases of lymphatic damage and lymphedema, as you could still be at an earlier stage, there are no false positives.

Thus, a positive Stemmer’s Sign always indicates lymphedema.

Any routine physical where a doctor checks your reflexes and presses your abdomen ought to include this very simple two-second test. Every patient who experiences chronic edema needs to know about it. If doctors and patients know…