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Welcome,
Bellisse co-founder Lesli Bell has been invited to speak at Medtrade Spring 2005, which will be held from April 5-7 at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Lesli's talk will be held on Wednesday, April 6, 2005, from 8:30 am to 9:30 am. Titled "Lymphedema After Breast Cancer: The Whole Picture", this one-hour informational clinical lecture will present research data and will include a power point presentation with many photos of lymphedema patients and compression options.
Please visit http://www.medtradespring.com/ medtradespring/index.jsp for further information and conference registration information.
by Lesli Bell Last year I had a 48-year-old woman referred to me with breast and chest swelling after treatment for lung cancer - one of those very unfortunate cases that did not develop from smoking. The cancer was in the right lung, with metastasis to the sternum. She had the tumors in the right lung removed and then had radiation to the lung and sternum. She started developing a much larger breast on the left shortly after finishing her radiation. Her oncologists had no explanation for her pain or for the increase in the size of her breast, and scheduled her for a left breast reduction with a plastic surgeon. Fortunately one of the patient's friends knew I specialized in breast and chest edemas, so she came to see me before the surgery. We treated her every day for three weeks, and she wore a Bellisse Compressure Comfort® Bra and a chip pad 24 hours a day. We successfully reduced her breast size and weight dramatically (about 2 cup sizes) and she was able to cancel her breast reduction surgery. She sees us occasionally for management of her chronic lymphedema and continues to wear the Compressure Comfort® Bra regularly. (She still can't wear traditional bras - as many lymphedema patients and therapists know, most traditional bras cut into swollen, tender tissues and can even impede drainage of lymphatic fluid.) She says we improved her quality of life dramatically and helped her get through this painful and overwhelming process without unnecessary surgery. This case shows how important it is for lymphedema specialists to share information with oncologists and oncology departments that may be separate from breast cancer centers. Many oncologists are still unaware that breast and chest lymphedema exists and that it can cause terrible pain and quality of life problems for the patient. Reduction surgery could have created serious problems and/or infection for this patient and could ultimately have made her lymphedema much worse. I am sure there are more patients out there who suffer from breast and/or chest edema that is not triggered by breast cancer treatment. Let us keep our eyes and ears open for these patients. We should educate our fellow health care professionals, so that we can help these non-breast cancer patients manage their pain and lymphedema and recover their quality of life.
At Bellisse, we often get asked about insurance reimbursement for the Compressure Comfort® Bra. The Compressure Comfort® Bra is definitely reimbursable. Remember: The 1998 Women's Cancer Act includes lymphedema as one of the post-breast cancer conditions that private insurance companies must cover. The Compressure Comfort® Bra is a Class I medical item. For such items, prescriptions and/or letters of medical necessity are proving to be adequate support for reimbursement claims. The Compressure Comfort® Bra may be billed like any compression garment needed for the management of post-surgical swelling and lymphedema. When submitting a paper claim (not electronic), some applicable codes have been: HCPC code L-3999, L-8239, L-8220, and E- 1399. Susan's Tip of the Month: The best code to try is the first one: L-3999, which is the "miscellaneous upper body orthosis" code for lymphedema. (If this claim is rejected be persistent: resubmit all the paperwork and add a letter of medical necessity (a sample letter is available on our site - see link below). For Bellisse's complete insurance submission recommendations, click here. Susan Tessier is Bellisse's Customer Service Manager.
Dragonheart Vermont
At a recent Breast Cancer Conference, Lesli met some of the members of Dragonheart Vermont, a Burlington, Vermont dragon boat team made up of breast cancer survivors. A dragon boat is a long canoe powered by many rowers, and the mark of a good team is not how strong or fast the individual members are, but how well they work together. It's a great way for breast cancer survivors to feel empowered and connected with one another - and the sight of their boat on Vermont's Lake Champlain is an impressive one!
High School Students Offer Important New Insights Into Breast Cancer Development
Ms. Gao and Ms. Li will share a $100,000 college scholarship as a prize for their work. To read more about these remarkable young women, click here. Please note: you'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this PDF file.
Do you have a great story about our product you'd like to share with us? Your stories will inspire us and help others. We'd love to hear from you at or toll-free at 1-877-273-1683.
"The world is round and the place which may seem
like the end may also be the beginning."
"Winning starts with beginning."
"Though no one can go back and make a brand new
start, anyone can start from now and make a brand
new ending."
This newsletter contains articles that we believe will be of general interest to the Bellisse community of lymphedema patients, their family and friends, and their health care providers. Sometimes, however, we have news and links that are of interest to only one of these groups. To be sure that you are you are in all the categories that interest you, please click on the "Update my profile" link at the very bottom of this newsletter. As always, Bellisse will not share your information with anyone else.
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Two
impressive young women took top honors in the
annual
Siemens-Westinghouse
Foundation Math:Science:Technology Competition
for
their work on genetic markers
for breast cancer. Lucie Gao and Xianlin Li, both
17, examined the effect of
DNA methylation, a natural gene-silencing process,
on the development of breast
cancer. They found that breast cancer cell lines
all show a specific pattern
of silencing in the DNA of a particular
tumor-suppressor gene. Their work provides
a new biomarker that can potentially be used for
early detection and treatment
of breast cancer. |
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