Swollen ankles & feet & chronic stiffness in wrists.

[Herbs77]

Hi, I've been away in Asia for a while and developed severe stiffness & pain in both wrists when i arrived 3 weeks ago. My left ankle has been swollen for the last week which i initially thought was a reaction to a mozzie bite but its got bigger & bigger & i juts got home to London and its now treble the size at least, my right ankle has started swelling up now too, both hurting. do you think its a flare or anything to do with long haul flying? I travel a fair bit & this has never happened to me before. I was diagnosed in august with Lupus (APS) after concurrent miscarriages & then my son was stillborn bought on my the APS ( which we only discovered from tonnes or blood tests afterwards).

any advice much appreciated.

Hayley

[MaryF Administrator]

Please with regard to this in terms of your underlying conditions, and also your recent travel, in terms of the flight but also perhaps any new virus/bug picked up in a foreign climate, please go pretty swiftly to seek some medical help.

Flare or otherwise it probably needs some urgent attention. Let us know how it goes. MaryF

[Godstrong]

I definitely agree with Mary. Please get checked urgently. With yor recent travel you're at an increased risk for DVT, as well as other things. If you can't get in to see your primary doctor today, I encourage you to go to the hospital emergency department. Hopefully it is not serious, but the risk is too high to not get checked. Please let us know how you are and what comes of it.

[Ozchick]

Absolutely get checked! I had no probs with my long haul fight to Europe in August/September last year. The trouble with so many vague symptoms with APS is that you end up blaming everything on to it. There area a few bugs in the hot humid Asian climate that don't exist at home (some quite nasty) and better to get it checked to out your mind at rest. Some of these countries have quite poor hygiene even in the "posh" places.

[GinaD]

Do see a doc. Bilateral issues can indicate autoimmune causes. One side issues are more likely to be circulatory or past or present injury. You have both. Go see a doc!

[nyctapdancer]

Please do get checked immediately!

And while you are there, ask them to check your Thyroid.

Ankle swelling and joint stiffness, especially in my feet, turned out to be related to a TSH of 9 - since hypothyroid often comes along with APLS.

[DataOdyssey]

Please get checked out immediately; as this could be indicative of a DVT. These were the exact symptoms that I had, when I had a DVT in my left thigh. Delays in diagnosis resulted in a lot of damage to the blood vessels in my left leg.

Please get this seen to immediately.