By: Lymphosaurus Rex
Media Releases

Ex-Perth model receives revolutionary micro-surgery to fix Lymphedema.

I’ve seen a few different versions of my news article floating around on the internet and I have to say that they differ GREATLY from the words used in the original text that was approved to go out for the article.

Why must the media exaggerate and twist stories, particularly ones that are trying to bring awareness to important health issues, and turn them into circus freak shows? “Woman with a ginormous 12kg leg that is about to explode and ooze fluid and perhaps even eat her small children when she isn’t looking, can’t make the swelling stop and has no hope for the future!…”

I just want to clarify a few important points that these news outlets failed to mention (which were actually the whole point to my interview):

  1. I do not have fluid or liquid oozing from my leg. Nor have I ever had this happen!
  2. The average human leg weighs 9-10% of the weight of the entire body, therefore, as I weigh 53kg, that should mean that my fatty leg weighs about 5.3kg not 12kg (if we base it on 10% of my entire body weight). So… accounting for a little extra liquid, that would maybe bring it up to 6kg… okay lets be CRAZY! and say 7kg, maximum. (However, I always have weighed 53kg, even before babies, soooo…. as I still weigh 53kg I don’t know where this extra 12KG OF LEG FAT has come from!)
  3. “Ex-Perth model stuck with 12kg leg after limb doubles in size during pregnancy“… Firstly, refer to point two above! Secondly, I am not “stuck with” anything. If the author had reported this properly, the headline would have read more like, “Ex-Perth model receives revolutionary micro-surgery to fix Lymphedema.” 

 

We are not circus freaks and Lymphedema is not a joke. Nor is it a life sentence. Thanks to advances in technology, we now have three surgical procedures that exist to treat our Lymphedema (not to cure it, but to alleviate symptoms to the point where is appears to be “cured.” We will always have a fault in our Lymphatic systems, but the physical results of that can be erased and greatly reduced to a point where both legs are normal, similar sizes).

Here is a link to a non-sensationalised article which I have found to be the closest to what I said in my interview.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/32426159/sarah-buller-diagnosed-with-primary-lymphedema-after-leg-ballooned-up-during-pregnancy/#page1