Help! My legs are swollen all the time.

[LauraL]

I have followed this community for a long time but rarely post. However, I am hoping someone can help me. I was diagnosed 17 years ago and had DBS on my left side to control my tremor in my right arm/hand in 2010. I am scheduled for DBS on June 3rd to make my symptoms on the left side behave.

The swelling in my legs is terrible. The vision of myself in the mirror reminds me of hippo legs-they are the same size at the ankle and the knee and every inch in between. I have been told to prop them up, wear support hose, drink no carbonated drinks and drink water, add lemon to my water, and get rid of my mirrors.

My doctor recently prescribed 20 mg of Furosemide 20mg 1x daily. After 3 weeks I don’t see a difference. What is the cause of this and is there anything I can do short of wearing long pants or a full scuba suit instead of a swimsuit??

Here is my current daily meds-Furosemide 20 mg 1x daily, Synthroid 0.175 mg 1x daily,

Rasagiline 1mg 1x daily, Venlafaxine ER 75mg 1x daily, Pramipexole 0.5mg 2tablets

3xdaily and 2 tablets at bedtime. The Pramipexole was recently reduced from 2tablets

4x daily.

I also have gained 50 lbs since having my throid was treated with radioactive iodine 17 years ago.

I really hope someone can help before I pack my jeans, sweatshirts, support hose,etc...for my week sailing in the BVI.

HELP

[parkie13]

Did you try a lymphatic drainage massage?

[Icequeen69]

I did a bit of medication side effect searching, not exhaustive, but interesting. one said you should not take with an antidepressant such as , Prosac, Zoloft, Elavil , Effexor. I also checked side effects, common and uncommon. "swelling of body". this is from mayoclinic. org/drugs-supplements/pramipexole-oral route/side effects . under rare side effects, "swelling of the arms and legs" I started looking at uncommon side effects when I had unusual side effects on two different medications. This is information that I am sharing with you from a medical website. (? is it ok for me to do this on this site?)

[park_bear in reply to Icequeen69]

Yes this is very important work. When the patient has strange and unusual symptoms the place to look is drug adverse effects. All too often this aspect is neglected:

Clinical characteristics of pramipexole-induced peripheral edema.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/108...

"RESULTS:

Of the 300 patients who were receiving pramipexole therapy, 17 patients had mild to severe PE, which was attributable to the medication. Fifteen patients had Parkinson disease and 2 patients had restless legs syndrome. The mean (+/-SD) time of onset of PE after pramipexole therapy was started was 2.6 +/- 3.6 months (range, 0.25-11 months). The mean (+/-SD) dose at onset of PE was 1.7 +/- 1.0 mg/d (dose range, 0.75-3 mg/d) and the mean (+/-SD) dose when PE was at its maximum was 2.6 +/- 0.7 mg/d (dose range, 1.5-3 mg/d). In all cases, the PE rapidly abated with discontinuation of therapy, and in all cases that we rechallenged, it rapidly returned. The condition seemed to be dose dependent but also idiosyncratic, as we could not identify any predisposing features. It resulted in extensive medical evaluation in some patients and was only minimally responsive to diuretic therapy.

CONCLUSION:

Peripheral edema should be included among the potential adverse events associated with pramipexole therapy."

Laura - Consider telling your doctor you would like to taper off the pramipexole and try levodopa instead.

[felixned]

Pramipexole was the problem for me. I had awful lymphedema for quite awhile. My neurologist took me off it. I also use lymphedema compression pump daily and I take some diuretics. Last time my veins specialist said that improvement in my legs "was spectacular ". Don't drop pramipexole without neurologist supervision and consent.