MARLENE COCHRANE:

Message for Barbara Thompson

The ABCN site appears to be the only one in Canada where info regarding Lymphedema Alert Wrist Bands is available. These are recognized in hospitals in the U.S. to prevent the wrong arm being used for blood samples etc. and as you probably know they are distinct from any other pink breast cancer bracelet. I have contacted Peninsula Medical who have mailed me some bracelets free of charge. Are these bracelets available in Canada? the gal in California with whom I spoke thought they should be but didn’t know where. I have spent this morning trying to obtain info regarding these wrist bands by contacting CBCF, CBCS and CBCN with no luck.

My purpose in contacting you is to ask that you kindly pass this information on to the CBCN at the very least and perhaps to the CBCS and the CBCF so that we all know that there is an effective tool to prevent the use of the ‘wrong’ arm for medical procedures. I was in the hopital last week & prevented the wrong arm being used by asking the nurse however later on the wrong arm was used when I was not fully aware. The suggestion I would like to make in that regard is that survivors contact their hospital & have the information inserted into their chart as an alert, in that way everyone who attends to them will have the info at hand. Also please urge the appropriate body to inform the public and make these “free” bracelets available to survivors.

Thanks for your site it was very helpful to me but honestly had I not been on a ‘mission’ this morning the info would never have reached me or any other breast cancer survivor

Thank you,
Marlene