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    #46
    After checking out those who do lymph massage, there are none in my area.....of course. Some of the lumps/blisters, that have developed on my lower legs are actually scarey looking! Still makes me feel like aliens are trying to get out of my legs!

    The una boots do help, but with my "bladder issues", they don't stay dry...... I hate this disease!!! ..............

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      #47
      Nothing helps 100%

      Hi Everyone,
      I'm real happy to find this thread, been dealing with the same problem for almost 3 years. My Neuro never actually gave it a name like foggyrose's did, lymph edema. My legs, ankles, and feet are very swollen ever since I ended up in a w/c after my last bad fall. Landed right on my butt and actually felt my spine move. Ended up with compound fractures in L3. Family said that's enough falling and my w/c was ordered. I started out with ankle compression stks which soon progressed to knee high stks in 8-15mg comp.

      They seem to keep swelling from getting any worse, but did not help it go away. Then I developed a venous ulcer on the back of my right calf. Just keep getting worse and worse. Found a cream online, Terrasil Max, that helped the ulcer start healing, but not all the way. Now it seems to just keep it from getting worse. Not going to go away until the edema is gone. I went to higher comp 15-20mg, but that just moved edema from my calves to the tops of my legs and my daughter had a hell of a time trying to get them on.

      She is my care provider for all leg and feet problems. She's done more for me than any doc could ever do. I developed ingrown toenails from the comp stks being so tight, even with the toeless, just another problem to deal with, and daughter has to maintain them regularly. Docs just cause a lot of pain by cutting nail away and let you think that will take care of the problem, but they grow back.


      Now for the good news, daughter saw infomercial about Tommie Copper comp sleeves. Got first pair of calf sleeves and noticed a difference right away. Just ordered second set so one set can be washed while wearing other. They did not take the swelling away, but has gotten a little better. The main thing is they are helping my circulation, which should help the edema, plus so much easier to put on and much more comfortable. I can actually wiggle my toes and move my feet around which I haven't been able to do for a long time. My daughter says my legs feel softer instead of so hard and tight.
      Hope my experiences can help my new swollen friends!!

      Sandra17


      ** Moderator's note - Post broken into paragraphs for easier reading. Many people with MS have visual difficulties that prevent them from reading large blocks of print. **

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        #48
        lymphodema can be tough to deal with and you are right that the stockings alone can just prevent it getting worse and that at least is something but there are some ways to reduce it and that then reduces the risk of ulcers or helps improve them

        there are pumps that connect to sleeves that are slipped over the leg and these then inflate "in waves" to help push the fluid upwards. these are not cheap obviously and would have to be prescribed and monitored by a doctor so that they did not make things worse

        the second thing is something i have experienced myself. my leg (i am an amputee) had become swollen to the point of forming blisters, this is when it is easy to get ulcers- as it was i developed cellulitis a few times which would then mean a stay in hospital on bed rest and iv antibiotics. after the second bout in a short perion i was referred to a physical therapist who specialised win lymphodema treatment. they can use a combination of bandaging and massage or sometimes just bandaging to reduce swelling.

        it was daily treatment for 14 days for me, he used a 4 layer bandage system-
        1. an elastic stockinette
        2. a cottonwool like fabric like that used in plaster casts
        3 a conforming bandage
        4 a compression bandage carefully applied from toes upwards

        but it has to be done daily as this will reduce the swelling so in order to get it smaller still the next time it has to be done a little firmer to maintain the reduction. once he had gotten the swelling reduced to a stable level, he then measure me up for my compression stockings to maintain this
        it worked well! and i have seen photos of even very severe cases that have been helped in this manner.

        if they just measure us at the time our limbs are already swollen, the stockings are not able to do much more than maintain what is already there with perhaps a slight reduction.

        Now i did something silly, things had been really good the swelling well controlled but my stockings wore out and having lost my job i could not afford new ones- no my leg has swollen again and if i cannot spend some time throughout the day with my leg properly elevated, i start getting the redness that warns me the cellulitis is not far away- so i intend to go back and have another round of treatment to get things back under control. it would have been far cheaper to have just bought the stockings and kept the regieme up!

        there are lymphodema clinics and for sometypes of lymphodema they have other treatments including laser- its a case of getting to the right practioners- sadly i think that many medical professionals just accept that if you have poor mobility then swelling is natural and over time this leads to lymphodema rather than simple swelling, but it is treatable.

        i will also admit that wearing the stockings is also far more comfy that having a swollen leg, evn when it is mid summer and over 100 degrees~

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          #49
          Well, I tried the diosmin, thinking all the time it was a bunch of hooey. Got one bottle ( a months worth) on line and used it for the month. The swelling went down but I thought it might also be cause I used a foot stool more.

          Stopped for 3 weeks and still used the foot stool and my right foot grew to cement block size. Sooo, I'm back on diosmin. Really works. Gave my MS neuro an empty bottle. She's researching it. Just fruit peels and natural stuff. Works gooood.

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            #50
            it is true that we have a lot to learn from natural remedies, when i was a newly qualified RN i can remember doing so research for an assignment on a post reg course, it was about health in the 3rd world and one of the things that came up in the research was a whole load of stuff from the WHO- they had recognized that the traditional remedies were often more cost effective but were being forgotten because of the push to western style health care even when it was too expensive!

            so they had recommended that effort be put into researching such treatments and testing them, that we may have a lot to learn from some of these natural treatment options. sadly it never happened, there is still a huge divide between the drug companies/western medicine and any kind of tradional medicine including herbal, and that is despite the fact that we know some heart drugs originated in plants (digoxin came from deadly nightshade, aspirin from willowbark etc) but now when one is suggested as a potential treatment it is usually treated with a degree of contempt by our medical system-pity!

            i have not heard of the one you mention but will check it out

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              #51
              Up and about

              Compression socks really help me. I sometimes wrap my right ankle in an Ace Bandage for a few hours. Putting my feet in a vibrating water tub-foot massager works great too.

              I have a lot of fasciculation (muscle twitching) in my legs. It’s kind of weird looking, like my legs are possessed.

              My feet a lot of time are numb and feel the size of bowling balls. As odd as it may sound, getting up on your feet helps with the numbness.

              It makes my ataxia worse. I’d fail any sobriety test sober.

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                #52
                My solution

                is excercise.
                This is the best thing to help with my edema. It's not easy and I don't always like it but it's what has worked the best for me.
                I was already on diuretics for high blood pressure when I started having my left leg swell so they weren't helping.
                We purchased a NuStep machine like the ones at the local MS Society - not cheap but wonderful and the best way for me to exercise far better & way more comfortable than my old recumbent bike which always left me with a sore back.

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                  #53
                  getting the socks on

                  Hi. Foggyrose said she could not get the stockings on. Where I bought mine they used and sell, a plastic device that you push the sock onto and then it holds it open so you can put your foot inside. It was about $15. They also had a device rather like those hand clamps a person uses to get something off a high shelf for removing the stocking. I did not see that used. So there are things to help with the on and off of it, which is a bear.
                  Wayleaf

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                    #54
                    Let's talk about swollen feet/legs again.

                    This thread was started back in 2012. I put in a couple of responses and tried a couple of treatment options.

                    I have now fallen apart and nothing works. I am now spending all day in a power chair and at the end of the day I really have two cement blocks at the end of my knees.

                    Compression socks do not work on me. They hurt me and don't compress me. Don't want to use water pills or dumb natural remedies (which don't really work over time). Since the thread was started in 2012 and it is now 2014 has anything changed and the fat feet people can now get some relief?

                    I'm really having problems and I would like some help. Let us continue this thread again.

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                      #55
                      hi

                      hi,

                      This is an old thread I see, yet i haven't been on for a while..yet i found something that helps for the swelling.... it's called lovely legs. you can get it online or in a natural food store.

                      it was helped me so much in the summer mos where my legs and ankles swell so bad walking is so very hard.

                      i hope this helps
                      Jen Dx'd 5/11
                      "Live each day as if it were your last"

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                        #56
                        Originally posted by wayleaf silverstar View Post
                        Hi. Foggyrose said she could not get the stockings on. Where I bought mine they used and sell, a plastic device that you push the sock onto and then it holds it open so you can put your foot inside. It was about $15. They also had a device rather like those hand clamps a person uses to get something off a high shelf for removing the stocking. I did not see that used. So there are things to help with the on and off of it, which is a bear.
                        Wayleaf
                        My legs were swollen because of major blood clotting. I had veins that were dried out. When I got my compression stockings they sold me (for 35 dollars) It was like a plastic bag, you slipped your foot in and put on the stocking. The stocking slid right on. It was a open toe stocking so you could pull the bag off through the toe opening when you got the stocking on. really nifty.

                        I still wear the stocking, but don't need the bag anymore. very little swelling.

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                          #57
                          Swelling in feet and legs

                          I had horrible swelling in my feet and legs 6 or 7 years ago that lasted maybe a year. Just as quick as it came the swelling left. It was replaced by numbness in my three middle toes on each foot.
                          About a year ago my feet were cold most of the time. (even in this hot weather)I still have numbness but a few months ago the middle of my feet, just before the arch, started feeling like the toes. Now when I walk I feel like I'm walking on golf balls.
                          I was wondering if anyone else has experienced this.
                          I have Progressive relapsing MS and most of my problems have been cognitive and brain atrophy.

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                            #58
                            Swelling Up-Date

                            Hi All...........Back again after a long absence. For awhile, I couldn't log in so could just read, but today....success!! Still fighting the battle of swollen feet and lower legs, but have been having a treatment for about a year and a half. Home health people come here being I need help with dressing my "lower half" and also now have a Foley catheter full-time that leaks occasionally.

                            I had Farrill wraps made that are used with a special stocking under them. Then I use those ugly socks you get in the hospital in XXXL being my feet are so swollen, as I do transfer to the toilet and need some traction. They should be taken off everyday, feet soaked in Epsom salt water, dried thoroughly, and clean stockings with wraps put back on. They really do help in containing the swelling except in my toes where the wraps don't cover. Here I have lumps that look like cherry tomatoes on my toes from the lymph being pushed down my legs.

                            And to think this all happens from not being able to walk. When the lymph system was explained to me, I was amazed at how complex it is, like most other systems in our bodies are. I'm sorry to read that so many others are suffering from this same condition. I do take a pretty high dose of lasix everyday too, which seems to help......I know the catheter bag has to be emptied a couple hours after taking the pill!

                            Hopefully I'll be here more often again. The disease continues on it's merry way but still living alone, with more help. Take care everyone..........foggyrose

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