Province directs Manitoba woman with massively swollen leg to Quebec for treatment

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This article was published 28/07/2017 (3012 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON — Linda Hansen beat stage 3 cervical cancer in the late 1990s, but she has been living with a painful and disheartening side-effect ever since.

The Roblin woman has suffered from lymphedema since 1999.

The condition causes the swelling of the soft tissues in a limb because lymph fluid cannot flow normally and it builds up. It is a repercussion of dozens of radiation treatments Hansen endured.

“It’s the size of an elephant leg,” she said of swelling that has tripled the girth of her left leg. It carries an additional four to five litres of fluid, she has been told.

For years, Hansen has been on a heavy medicine regime prescribed by doctors.

Despite this, her left leg still hurts, making even a quick stroll a struggle. She has seen maybe a dozen physicians who have told her she is stuck “living with it.”

Yet, she has never lost hope.

After overhearing a comment that the Mayo Clinic in the United States might be able to help, she visited the facility in Rochester, Minn. She scheduled a surgery for early July, with the belief Manitoba Health would pay most of her bill.

Shortly before the procedure, the province withdrew its financial backing. Instead, it directed her to a surgeon in Quebec.

“Whether or not he’s going to be able to do something, I sure hope so,” Hansen said. “It’s a pretty horrific disease.”

The mother of three is now waiting to hear back about a possible surgery in Montreal.

“There’s hope. There’s always hope,” she said. “I don’t believe for one minute there isn’t something that can be done.”

That doesn’t mean this ordeal hasn’t been devastating to Hansen.

She has fought with anxiety, depression and physical pain. She notices people who stare, who circle her to get a closer look.

“You can hear their whispers,” Hansen said, through tears. “It’s not nice.”

Hansen considers her anguish an injustice she has been forced to endure by herself. Never did the doctors whom she begged for a solution suggest the Mayo Clinic, until she happened to overhear one in the background of a phone call.

She is frustrated about being unemployed, without steady work because of her condition. She does not receive disability payments because she once discontinued the benefit in a futile bid to return to work.

She has fought to re-establish disability payments since then, but her appeals have been denied.

And then there’s the physical agony.

“It hurts to the point you don’t even want to tolerate the pain anymore, so you just try to get your mind off it. You do something, you take a pill, you talk about it with somebody, you cry,” an emotional Hansen said.

“Sometimes, you rant and rave and you don’t understand what’s going on.”

Galvanized by the support of her husband, three adult children and her friends, she presses forward.

“Every day, you have to push through,” she said.

— Brandon Sun