I am still hoping to find help for swollen tongues. I'm not entirely convinced it's lymphedema, but what else would get worse instead of better in recovering from surgery? Mine is worse than when I first posted about it.

I worked with an OT on lymphedema. She is also a CLT, certified lymphedema therapist. She gave me a few MLD exercises (manual lymphatic drainage) for my tongue, but I find it very hard to do them effectively. My hope was to find a few external manual lymphatic drainage exercises for the nodes that the tongue drains into, thinking that if those were more clear, the tongue would begin to drain on its own, perhaps through movement.

Lymphatic drainage of the tongue is very complex: I don't see how manual exercises could be very effective, especially considering how hard it is it reach in and manipulate. I can move some of my tongue through tightly closed lips, perhaps that can help with drainage. Here's a slide show of the total anatomy, slides 34 and 35 shows the lymphatic drainage.

I'm very familiar with my mouth being either too dry or too overwhelmed with secretions. I use the Biotene Dry Mouth oralbalance gel and the Biotene Dry Mouth moisturizing spray. Swishing with water, and carbonated stuff help. I especially like flavored soda water--no sugar. Probably you know all this.

Kristen, your speech pathologist might be using Myofascial Trigger Point Release Therapy for jaw and neck mobility, and to reduce pain. I'm not sure if that helps with lymphatic drainage.

best wishes, Jon