Yes, it looks like something out of Lost in Space. It’s an at home machine to help with lymphedema. I meant to post this during breast cancer awareness month but honestly? I have a dog going through cancer treatment and it has been almost a full-time thing between surgery and her chemo.

I have lymphedema after 14 years in my left arm where the sentinel node was removed. My case is mild compared to what I have literally seen with my own eyes in others, but as was the case with the lymphedema in my lower left leg, I am treating it early.

In my arm the lymphedema is more tricky and a little worse. My leg is obviously easier to massage to get everything moving. One armed massage is hard.

I go to lymphedema physical therapy which is in fact lymphatic massage. It helps with circulation within my lymphatic system which was damaged during breast cancer and knee surgery.

There are not enough lymphedema certified physical therapy practitioners out there in the U.S. which is why I was curious to try this home machine.

The machine is from Tactile Medical. They came to my Penn Medicine Physical Therapy Clinic to give me a demonstration.

Here is their website:

I had many giggles being fitted for what is essentially a lymphadema jacket. It is as close to a space suit as I will ever get! So I got fitted and they hooked me up to the machine and off we went!

Guess what? It works! It actually worked really well. It is the weirdest feeling at first as the air pumps through the “jacket” mimicking the actual human hands version of lymphedema physical therapy. It’s oddly relaxing even if you slightly feel like you are inside a water bed for lack of a better description. It is gentle waves and a very slight sensation of pumping.

What’s the catch you ask? Simple. Freaking health insurance. They make it cost prohibitive. For me, not on Medicare with good (and expensive) health insurance, my out of pocket costs would be over $6000! And that is up front money. If I was on Medicare, my cost would be literally a fraction of that amount which seems grossly unfair.

Why is it in 2025 the cost of healthcare things related to breast cancer is still so out of reach? It’s ridiculous. Look how long it took women to get access to Mammogram tomography machines, also known as 3D mammography? And I have first hand experience with that as given the nature of my tumor until tomography was approved in the US, for the first few years post breast cancer I had to pay the co-pays of $250 each time for MRIs with contrasting dye. And we all know as survivors how many mammograms etc. there are the first few years post breast cancer.

I can’t justify the cost of the lymphadema jacket for myself mostly because I know I really don’t need it at this time. But what if I did?

It’s time for politicians and insurance companies to collectively get their heads out of their asses. It’s bad enough that we all have to worry about what will be covered by health insurance in this country come 2026.