Sudden Swelling of Legs and Feet

[anrean]

Has anyone else experienced sudden swelling of their feet and legs? All of a sudden out of the blue it started happening. Was referred to a cardiologist and had an echo cardiogram where everything came out as expected. I initially declined any meds after a bad experience with a neurologist who was prescribing large doses that were making me very ill. Fortunately the cardiologist fully understood and did not push the issue. A week later I had to apologize profusely and accept 2mg furmosiside (spelling) that has helped some but not enough. As many of you know, I do not care for my oncologist, so hesitate to call him without hearing from others.

I am flying out Sunday 11/11 to care for my cousin in FL as she recovers from total knee replacement - my only jobs are to feed the critters and be there at night in case she falls.

Any input would be gratefully accepted. I do have a physician in FL, although it has been 4 years since my last time down there.

Lauri-Anne

[Denzie Moderator Volunteer]

Did they do a Doppler on the legs to look for blood clots? That’s the only thing I can think of.

[anrean in reply to Denzie]

Not yet, Denzie. Perhaps that will be the next move. Unfortunately this is all coming at a critical time when I have to be there for my cousin. Thank God I have a physician in FL as well as at Moffit. I am leaving it in God's hands at the moment. Have gone as salt-free as humanly possible! Doing everything on my end - now it is up to our Lord. Please pray that everything goes okay and I can be there for Kim without being an extra burden. I will email the cardiologist on Monday and see what he thinks. I suspect he put me on a very low dose of furmoside because of my unwillingness to take new meds and will up the furmoside. Thank God for new technologies and a physician who cares!

God Bless

Lauri-Anne

[Denzie Moderator Volunteer in reply to anrean]

Do try to get the Doppler before you get on the plane. I’m concerned about dvts.

[anrean in reply to Denzie]

Denzie, I am very concerned, too. But there is no time. The flight leave at 6 tonight. I will email my cardiologist when I arrive and tell him of any trouble with the flight, and see what he wants done. Thank God I prepared well enough a long time ago to connect with Moffit and a physician at the University of Florida. They can get my records from Roswell and the cardiologist, and follow up with whatever needs to be done. I have taken an extra dose of furosimide and will be up all night, hopefully peeing! My legs and feet have gone down to the point I can now get on a pair of sneakers!! Praying the extra dose brings them back to normal, and I will be wearing compression stockings.

I have just never heard of the swelling happening out of the blue like this. I am most concerned that it is an indicator that the cancer has gone from stable to active. The next scan is not until mid-December, but that may have to be moved up.

Thank God for excellent care, even from a cheapy airline. Allegiant will have a wheelchair at the door and will wheel me all the way to the plane - I get to board first! They will then have a wheelchair from the plane to the door to leave. For this I get to deplane last. Oh well. I have an FAA-approved concentrator for the flight with an extra battery so that I meet the requirement of having 1 1/2 times the O2 necessary for the flight. My carry on bag is free because it is full of medical stuff and can go in the overhead compartment despite being bigger than technically allowed. The checked bag is 1/2 medical stuff, too except for the laptop and camera. There are some very good laws to help travelers with special needs! I have carefully followed all the rules. I will be at the airport 3 hours early - better to be sitting around than to find out there is a problem and not enough time to resolve it!! Also I have not charged the Medic Alert GPS system so that it can travel with me in the box it came in - I will have to either let the battery totally run out or mail it home to meet requirements. In short, everything possible has been done to make this flight possible.

As I said somewhere in all of this, I am just very frightened that the swelling is an indication that the cancer has turned from stable to active. Please pray that is not the case!

Thank you so very much for caring - you are a bedrock for so very many of us!

God Bless you

Lauri-Anne

[Pandora8205]

Yes sudden swelling in feet and legs. Doc put me on lasik elevate legs and got better. Doc states chemo caused swelling

[ThePurplePlace]

I have very significant swelling in my calves and my feet that started pretty much after my diagnosis. We all assumed at first that it was from the steroids as I was on dexamethasone originally for my brain met and then also during chemo. My feet and legs would hurt so much and the only thing that helped was being on lasix keeping them elevated and wearing custom fit support hose. I did that for several months probably close to 9 months and then when they finally tapered me off the Dex it started to get better, but I still have to stay on lasix otherwise they will swell up again but not agree they were before I also only have to wear the support hose now when I'm flying or when I have a really bad hot humid day in the summer. I did have the Doppler done to rule out any DVT especially because I had a history of pulmonary embolism I highly do suggest you have that time because it's not unheard of for lung tumor patients to develop blood clots either in the lung or in the legs. Also keep in mind that if you are on lasix long-term it can tank your potassium levels mine would often go down fairly low so I now have to take potassium supplements as well. That seems to work out well but just another medication to add into the mix.

I think leg and calf feet swelling a pretty common also with chemo and other steroids so you probably find you're not alone I had another friend that recently had them after a long car drive where she was sitting in one position too long and hers did end up being blood clots so again please have that checked as soon as you can.

Best regards

Lisa