"Go watch some YouTube videos."
From the Sunday Self-Care Chronicles | 7/12/26
Friend, I’m coming in hot today!
This week was my first week back with clients since returning from Italy. And there is truly nothing like being face to face with the people I serve, because I hear them, I see them, I love them… I AM them. Smart, beautiful, capable women trying to figure out the ups and downs of life on this side of a breast cancer diagnosis.
And some of the things they experience and share with me absolutely make me want to scrub the grout at midnight!
We’ve all had someone say something to us about our cancer experience that lands as naive or ignorant at best, and dismissive or cruel at worst. I’ve come to expect it, especially from people who have no personal experience with cancer or the medical field.
But when it comes from the people who are supposed to take care of us, or worse someone who’s been diagnosed themselves, it kicks off Mrs. White from the movie “Clue” on repeat in my head: stock still, dead faced, and repeating “it-it- the f - it -flam - flames. Flames, on the side of my face, breathing-breath- heaving breaths. Heaving breaths…”
Here’s what happened.
One of my wonderful clients this week was having problems with “cording” while I was away.
If you’re not familiar, cording is a nickname for Axillary Web Syndrome (AWS), where lymphatic vessels and venous channels become inflamed and hardened. It shows up as a tight “cord” under the skin, usually starting in the axilla (armpit) and stretching down to the elbow or even the wrist. It is shown to be more common with axillary node dissection and radiation therapy, but can also occur with sentinel node biopsy, chemotherapy, and it increases risk of lymphedema.
It’s often painful and restricts range of motion, so it’s definitely worth addressing.
And my client did exactly what she should have done: she asked the nurse about it at her next appointment.A nurse who also happens to be a breast cancer survivor.
But instead of being met with empathy, compassion, and guidance on treatment options, she was told that they don’t really know what it is or what causes it, to focus on being grateful that she’s alive, and to “go on YouTube and look up some videos.”
Not a handout with a list of links to trusted professionals in the field. Just “go to YouTube.
So my client did what she was told. She went on YouTube, found some videos, and tried to follow along. But she was worried that she wasn’t doing it right, massaging too hard or stretching too aggressively. She thought it might be a little better but she also noticed that she felt sore afterwards, like the whole area was bruised, and she was afraid she would cause swelling or worse.
I can’t blame her.
It’s not fair to ask someone to find their own guidance when they don’t know what they’re looking for and then to put that into practice when they don’t know even know it’s the right stuff.
When you’ve been through a cancer diagnosis, so much about your body changes, even when you can’t always see it.
And friend, the fact that she was put in this situation at all is absolute BULLSHIT.
I don’t know who the nurse was, and I still believe that everyone gets to express their own cancer experience in their own way (even if that’s toxic positivity), but professionally I’m appalled.
AWS is well-researched in rehabilitation oncology literature. It’s also “one of the most prevalent and underrecognized disorders affecting breast cancer (BC) women” according to a review in the Journal of Clinical Medicine. The problem is that there is a huge awareness gap among specializations, even within similar areas of medicine, like oncology care.
Despite radiation therapy being one of the primary treatments that precedes conditions like cording and lymphedema, most radiologists don’t educate their patients about the possibility, often because they don’t even know about it themselves. To their defense, lymphatics in general is a relatively “young” field of study in modern medicine, with AWS in particular first formally recognized in the literature in 2001.
And with this research comes more information on treatment efficacy. Physical therapy, progressive exercise, stretching, soft tissue mobilization and scar massage, along with manual lymphatic drainage therapies all offer benefits in the resolution of these cords.
These are some of the same techniques that I used with this same client in our appointment and after one session she shared the next day that “Today is the first day in so long that I barely feel any pain in my underarm!”
And if I could do this for every one of you I would. But we all know that's not possible. I'm one person, in one city, and there are not enough practitioners anywhere to care for the estimated 20 million breast cancer survivors worldwide.
This is why I’m so fired up about putting safe, effective, and relevant self-care options in yourhands. And why my experience as a 9 year survivor myself cannot be separated from my 14 years as a professional in integrative oncology.
It’s been 25 years since cording was first documented in research and yet it is still misunderstood and underacknowledged in cancer care. And this is just one small piece of what you might deal with post-treatment.
I can’t change the system but I can change how you are able to work within it.
By helping you understand what you’re feeling in your body.
By teaching you how to talk to professionals on your care team using language and evidence they (hopefully) understand.
And by equipping you with safe, effective hands-on skills to use for yourself, in between appointments or when you simply can’t access the outside care you need.
That’s what my new program is all about.
Inside you’ll build your Breast Cancer Body Literacy Toolkit; a customizable, evolving container of knowledge, skills, and resources that you can draw from whenever you need them.
As You Are Now: A Breast Cancer Self-Care Program for Real Life is here to help with understanding your body on this side of your diagnosis, so that when something comes up, you know what to do instead of spiraling into fear or guesswork (or YouTube).
The first founding members have already joined and our very first welcome call is this week, on Thursday July 16th. If you would like to see if this might be what you’ve been looking for, email me with the word “details” and I'll walk you through it personally.
A cursive version of Love,
P.S. Curious but not ready for details? This Thursday at 12:30pm ET I'm hosting my first free Open Call: come meet me, ask anything, no strings.Save your seat here. And a reminder that the free Starter Kit is always there to share with someone who needs it.
Research Resources:
Axillary Web Syndrome in Breast Cancer Women: What Is the Optimal Rehabilitation Strategy after Surgery? A Systematic Review - Journal of Clinical Medicine
Review of axillary web syndrome: What the radiologist should know - European Journal of Radiology
Axillary web syndrome after axillary dissection - American Journal of Surgery
Patients who report cording after breast cancer surgery are at higher risk of lymphedema: Results from a large prospective screening cohort - Journal of Surgical Oncology
Motion restriction and axillary web syndrome after sentinel node biopsy and axillary clearance in breast cancer - American Journal of Surgery