Dercum's Disease Support Group

I just saw this on "The Doctors." It looked like something that might help us with Dercum's. What do you think?

Slimmer Thighs, No Surgery

Janice, 46, keeps in shape and eats healthily but has trouble toning up her butt and thighs. While she wants a smoother bottom, Janice does not want to have surgery or liposuction. “It’s that classic cottage cheese,” Dr. Ordon says. “Call it what you want, but all women have it to a certain degree -- cellulite.”

To help with her problem, Dr. Ordon explains that Janice is backstage having a noninvasive therapy treatment performed by Lynn Banfi of Per Amore in Beverly Hills, which reduces cellulite and slims the thighs. She first uses Dermosonic, which combines ultrasound and non-invasive subdermal therapy to help reduce cellulite, localize fat reduction and smooth the skin. “Really, it’s all about stimulating the circulation, helping that,” Dr. Ordon says. “And the energy from the ultrasonic is actually heating up the fat, melting it a little bit, reorganizing it and help the body to get rid of it.”

After the Dermosonic treatment, Janice will be put into an Oxypod, where convective dry thermal heat and deep-penetrating near-infrared heat is administered simultaneously with therapeutic, intense LED light. It naturally reduces fat mass content, secretes leptin hormones and stimulates the hypothalamus to help Janice lose weight and inches. “It’s an infrared heat, so it wasn’t hot,” Dr. Jim says. “Compared to a sauna, you can stay in there for 30 minutes without getting uncomfortable, and it would massage you at the same time.”

About 10 treatments are recommended for the best results, but after just her fourth, Janice’s body has made a noticeable change. In addition to reducing the bumps on her thighs and bottom, she also lost 2 ¾ inches!

Sounds like it may, but we need to get the insurance companies and dermatologists to recognize it as a treatment option. My local botox/lipo dermatologists office sent me away because they wanted cash and lipo isnt medically necessary.

This is probably something similar.

Post edited by: JashC, at: 06/29/2009 10:07 PM

Hi Jennifer..sounds good for Beverly Hills..$$$$..no way would insurance cover it. It is probably just a temporary fix anyway. Not within reach of us peons! Hugs, Grandma Sylvia

My point exactly. But I bet it would at least help. Anything that would make a difference. They would probably grow back. It sounds like (on the recommendations section of lipomadoc.org) there are a lot of things that play a part in how fast DD progresses, and simply eliminating the lipomas does not treat the cause of the lipomas. Almost certainly a temporary solution like Grandma said.

It would just be nice if regular people with insurance could get the treatments. I would be happy with any kind of relief.

Post edited by: JashC, at: 06/29/2009 10:12 PM

Isn't that treatment for cellulite? Most of us don't really have that problem as we have lipo/lymphedema issues. I would recommend lymphatic massages as I "drained" quite a bit after mine. I can only imagine how much more help it would be if i got them more often.

What do the silicone patches do? Have never heard of that!

Jennifer, I wonder if this treatment would work on the lumps also? It would sure be interesting if someone with Dercum's could try it and see if it helps with the painful lumps.

I know that pain management is is really big issue in the medical healith field. If you can prove that you need liposuction for pain management that may be covered. I am sure that it would take a bunch of letters to the insurance co. from a few Dr.s to say that your pain is unmanageable. I also did read a DD article that stated that lipo did help releive the pain from the DD lumps being gone after the procedure, and that it improved the patients quality of life.

I also know that when I worked with pancreas Transplant patients. The same type thing was happening. In order for the insurance co. to cover the cost of the pancreas transplant (which is considered experimental), the patient must have letters stating that their quality of life is deteriorating from insulin use, and they need the transplant because they nolonger feel their diabetic reactions from a too low or a too high glucose levels. This can be life threatening.

However, Some of the patients were not diabetic, but had pancreatitis and were in extreme pain. They needed the pancreas transplant because of pain management and needed the letters from the Dr.s also. I believe that they all were covered by insurance for their transplants, but it was a real pain to obtain all the information needed for the transplants to be OK'd by the insurance co.

I would think that a person with DD would be put into the catagory of unmanageable pain. Atleast for some of us. I know that I was tested for pain tolerance and had the highest pain tolerance that the pain Dr. had ever had. He was amazed and he knew I had been in daily pain for many years to have a tolerance so high. Celeste.

Hi Celeste..I hesitate to ask..but how do they test your pain tolerance? I know mine was good when I had my kids as I did not say anything much. I have heard that constant pain sensitizes your brain to pain and it is perceived as stronger than it actually is.I just know that I really hurt everywhere! The lumps kill me and you! When you press on some of them they hurt and when you press on others the pain is unbearable. I think these are the ones that have infiltrated nerves...OUCH..some of these shoot pain. Hugs, Grandma Sylvia

Sylvia, I had several tests done to see how long I could stand pain. One of the tests is a little machine that you put your index finger into and a pointed plastic pencil drops down and presses on the top of your fingernail, harder and harder, while registering numbers from 1-10. You hold your finger in the machine as long as you can. When the pain it too great, you pull your finger out, this stops the pressure of the plastic pencil at a number. My pain tolerance was 9. The Dr. thought the machine was not working correctly and sent it out for calibration. The next time I was in, the machine was back from calibration and I was tested again. Same result, I was a number 9. The Dr. told me he never had someone who had a pain tolerance as high as mine is. The other test he performed was you hold your arm out straight in front of you, your fist clenched as hard as you can. This tightens the muscle in your forearm. You hold that pose with tension on that muscle as long as you can without letting up on that tension, while the Dr. presses on the muscle and tried to pull your arm down to your side. He times you for as long as you can hold your arm up and at full tension. I just stood and held tight, we talked like nothing was going on. As the minutes ticked away, he started to get abit nervous. Then he finally told me to release my fist and put my arm down. He excused himself from the room to consult with another Dr. When he returned, he said he had never seen anything like it. My pain tolerance was extremely high. I told him that my brother and my son also have the same thing.

My brother shredded and tore his achellies tendon off his ankle. He still walked on it for 3 days before he could get in to the specialist. After his surgery to re-attach, he was told to stay off it for 6 weeks, he was walking on it with a walking cast in 2 days. No pain meds. They were amazed. My son fell while skiing and broke both bones in his forarm. He then leaned on the arm to try to get up, this made the two bones compound next to each other. He had on a pull over jacket with a placket zipper. When he got to the hospital, they wanted to cut off his favorite jacket, he wouldn't let them. He quick pulled it off over his head with the arm dangling. The nurse almost passed out.

I learned that if my son says something hurts, I should run him to the Dr. or hospital because it is probably broken. He has numberous broken bones that have healed that we didn't know he even broke. They show up on x-rays we had done for other broken bones.

I believe that my brother has DD and he is skepticle and in denial. He has had the lypomas for many years and has always struggled with his weight. He has started to ask me more questions about DD so I know he is thinking about it.

I hope my son does not get DD. He has lots of body aches, snapping joints when rising after sitting for awhile, and body pains, he has struggled with bouts of depression, but doesn't have any lumps. I just remember being just like him at his age. He is 24.

I knew I had a high pain tolerance when I had an extopic pregnancy and had internal bleeding for 4-5 days before I went to get help. I was so weak, I had to go to the hospital. My blood pressure was dropping and I had bled 6 pints internally and was almost dead. They asked me why I waited so long, I just said it didn't hurt that bad. When I had my first baby, I went out shopping (walking) for 8 hours "with just little cramps", that I though was just a touch of constipation. When I got home, As a joke, I went and got my suitcase and said "OK lets go" to my mother and husband. (I had 3 more weeks before my due date). One half hour later my water broke, here I was in labor the whole time shopping and didn't realize what labor was! Heck, I had worse pain with ovarian cysts each month! Funny what our bodies percieve as pain, and then what "real pain" really is. Celeste.

That post from "herbalhealth" looks like spam to me. Herbalhealth, if I am wrong and you are truly someone interested in being a member on here, please let me know. I see that the only post you have made is one post and that was to advertise a product. Thank you.