I totally agree that therapists have been much more helpful than doctors about lymphedema ESPECIALLY on the torso. A year ago I had what looked like a bike tire emerge horizontally underneath my mastectomy scar on the side where the lymph nodes were removed (only four were taken, but I had been on eight separate air flights in the week before the sudden swelling. I don't care what the experts say about the connection being debunked; if the fluid in my inner ear reacts to the change in pressure during an airplane's ascent and descent, I am sure that fluids in my other internal systems are capable of reacting as well!!) Doctors....argh....it's like they just don't really know how to respond, even the plastic surgeon specialist in lymphedema I saw wanted to check and test ONLY my arms...??? The therapist was immensely much more helpful. And yes, in answer to your question about compression, I used an abdominal binder from Walgreens when I was faced with that grotesque and frankly scary swelling. I was away from home--traveling, duh!--and it's all my daughter and I could think to do. That did bring the swelling down until I saw the therapist. I'm using other compression now--the swelling, at this point way more mild and diffuse, has moved higher (above the scar) and my effort is to keep on top of it so it never comes back like that first shock!! The therapists have strategies to work you through reining it in and then trying to maintain life without an episode. Yeah for a good therapist!!!!