LEG/ANKLE EDEMA (SWELLING)

TIGMONSTER68 · Post by **TIGMONSTER68** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 11:47 am

Hi,
One of the things that happened to me in the past six months, has been pretty bad fluid retention in my legs/ankles... it makes my feet ache, I can't walk good when they are swelled, and I'm wondering if anyone else has/had this and will CPAP therapy reduce this? I have never had this before, it just started in January and doesn't go away no matter what I do.
Any thoughts?
Jodie

Goofproof · Post by **Goofproof** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 12:09 pm

XPAP would have little effect, you need to see the doctor, heart problems can cause swelling and fluid retention, you may need Lasix to remove the fluid. Get to the Dr. Jim

Bamalady · Post by **Bamalady** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 12:31 pm

Hi ... you may want to read this thread about idiopathic edema and OSA.

http://tinyurl.com/2mtqrg

WearyOne · Post by **WearyOne** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 12:34 pm

I started a thread on this a while back concerning my edema. I have pitting edema in my legs and ankle swelling. Although heart problems, kidney problems, and some other health issues can cause edema, it's not always that ominous. I had a nuclear stress test to check my heart (since I was short of breath sometimes, too), and blood work to check for kidney function and other things, and all were fine. My physician says he feels it is something called venous insufficiency. The little arteries (veins?) have valves that keep the blood from flowing backward when it's trying to get from your feet/legs back to your heart. In venous insufficiency, they don't work right and fluid leaks backward, causing the edema. Some people have edema and they never find out why. Mine also started, at least noticeably, after starting CPAP. Whether there's any connection or just coincidence, I don't know. (I personally feel it's because of my weight, which can be a cause.).

My physician recommended wearing gradient support stockings (not the same as regular support hose). The "gradient" means the support strenght varies through the stocking, being greater around the ankle to help push the blood back up toward the heart and keep fluid from pooling around the feet, ankles, and legs.

All that said, you need to check with your physician to rule out heart or kidney issues.

Let us know what you find out!

Pam

PS, after I posted this, I noticed Bamalady put a link to the thread I mentioned. Thanks, Bamalady!

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CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): hose, CPAP

TIGMONSTER68 · Post by **TIGMONSTER68** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 1:47 pm

Well I have been checked for heart/blood pressure etc.. not the way I would have wanted but back in January I ended up in the hospital because I just hadn't been feeling good and my chest and arm were feeling "weird" Well it turns out the major artery in my heart was 98% blocked and I was lucky to be alive according to the doctor. I had a stent put in my LAD in Jan 2007, was put on the lowest dose high blood pressure med, and of course all the scripts that go with having coronary artery disease...and THAT is when it started. I never had it before when I was undiagnosed but now that I KNOW I have heart disease, of course my legs and ankles start swelling. I quit smoking, right around heart surgery time in January, and I'm going to fathom a guess that the 30 lbs I put on very quickly and partly from quitting smoking but also partly because I started eating like crap.....is causing the edema, which also started to make me not sleep and snore quite loudly (which I never did before) , which made me lazy because I had no energy, which is not helping in trying to lose weight.....but I was hoping in some sort of way, by treating the OSA I would reverse some of these medical problems. It's just so discouraging to be so young (I think I'm pretty young yet) and have so many medical issues.
Plugging along....
Jodie

Bamalady · Post by **Bamalady** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 4:29 pm

Well, research says using CPAP does help.

Researchers from St. Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin followed 168 patients with OSA for an average of 7.5 years to monitor the long-term effect of CPAP therapy on cardiovascular disease. They compared the number of cardiovascular-related events and deaths among the 107 patients who used CPAP therapy to the number of such occurrences among the 61 patients who never tolerated CPAP therapy or stopped using it for at least five years.

There was a significant excess of cardiovascular deaths among the untreated patients (14.8 percent) versus the CPAP group (1.9 percent) during the follow-up period.

The total number of cardiovascular events -- including death, congestive heart failure, hypertension, and stroke -- also was significantly greater in the untreated group (31 percent), compared to the CPAP group (18 percent).

http://tinyurl.com/2bwbt5

The authors presented the results of their study in which the effect of CPAP therapy on endothelial dysfunction was measured by peripheral arterial tonometry in patients with OSA. The authors showed that arterial blood flow, as measured by peripheral arterial tonometry, improves with CPAP therapy, suggesting that treatment of OSA decreases endothelial dysfunction and may prevent, or reverse, the development of vascular injury and disease.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/507800_5

You are doing the right thing to stave off more bad effects of Apnea. I have 5 stents...none around the heart. I got the first one 5 years before I was diagnosed with Apnea, and have been told how very unusual it is have have blockages where they are.

Good luck to you.

kteague · Post by **kteague** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 10:35 pm

I have had idiopathic edema since the 80's. In recent times have been diagnosed with some cardiac concerns. In all these years my sleep has been severely fragmented. In the year I've been in cpap, I've found that the more regulated my sleep has become, and the more mask time I get, the better my legs do. It may be as simple as my legs are elevated more, but I think all our systems just plain work better when we have the sleep we were designed to need.

In addition to the aforementioned medical things to get checked out, thyroid and severe anemia have been associated with fluid retention. Wouldn't hurt to be thoroughly evaluated.

Hope you find cpap to give you some relief too.

Kathy

Snoredog · Post by **Snoredog** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 1:16 am

Goofproof wrote:XPAP would have little effect, you need to see the doctor, heart problems can cause swelling and fluid retention, you may need Lasix to remove the fluid. Get to the Dr. Jim

what he said ^^^ never screw around with possible heart related problems. Every heart attack you have causes loss of heart function.

Let them clear your heart first then if a diuretic is needed to get rid of the excess water let them prescribe one.

TIGMONSTER68 · Post by **TIGMONSTER68** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 6:26 am

Thank you all for your responses, they were all very helpful. I have been thoroughly checked out by my doctor, after the scare in January he did a check of all the things that could possible be wrong and I passed with flying colors, well unless of course you count the heart disease, edema, high blood pressure, overweight, OSA.... I'm a very healthy bouncing baby girl!
I am already on a mild diuretic but it doesn't seem to help any....my blood pressure is normal (through medication), and my arteries are all now flowing wonderfully.....so now I have to work on the fact that I feel like crap all the time. I'm just so tired of being sick and tired.
I had a bad night last night, I woke up after 5 hours and took the mask off. I was coughing, my throat hurt, my ear hurt, and I was all stuffed up. I haven't been sick with a cold or anything since BEFORE my surgery and now after 3 nghts using the mask I'm sick. It's very dis-heartening. (Is that a word?)
I will try try again tonight.....but I feel worse than I did when I didn't have the mask right now.
Jodie

bookwrm63 · Post by **bookwrm63** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 8:41 am

Jodie,

One thing you mentioned was eating alot of crap when you quit smoking. That's about when mine started as well. Has your doctor told you to cut back on salt and salty foods, especially chips, pretzels, etc.? It will only make you retain more fluid. My heart was also checked out and is fine but I do notice that if I've had alot of salty stuff, the swelling gets worse. If I avoid it, it gets better. The diuretic didn't help me at all, just easing off the salt does.

Good luck!

Mary

catbirdgirl · Post by **catbirdgirl** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 8:49 am

also, consider food allergies. I swell up whenever I eat wheat.

TIGMONSTER68 · Post by **TIGMONSTER68** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 8:58 am

Bookwrm63,
Oh he has told me to watch my salt intake, but I guess I really need to concentrate more on that .....I'm still not eating that healthy, I'm kind of in a bad place right now, a lot of personal/health/financial things going on and I just heard that my cat that I have had for 17 years died. It just keeps getting better for me!! But I'm trying to keep a positive attitude because it really can't get any worse for me...

Thanks for the advice and thoughts!
Jodie

lilsheba · Post by **lilsheba** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 10:31 am

Interesting this should come up, I've been dealing with edema since summer started pretty much. Anytime the atmospheric pressure goes up and and it gets hot I'm in pain and swollen. It was there before cpap therapy and is there now. If it does help I hope it helps soon!

I shouldn't have any heart issues, I know my blood pressure is rising but it's not horrible. I don't understand why I have it!

KimberlyinMN · Post by **KimberlyinMN** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 6:16 am

I've just started having problems with this the last couple of months. They did an ultrasound on my legs to see if it was another blood clot, which it wasn't thankfully. I'm taking the generic Lasix now. I can't remember the first dosage but it worked so well that by noon I was kind of loopy and I was scared to take it on the days I had to drive anywhere. (I was just kind of "out there...") I started cutting the pills in half and that worked. The doctor then prescribed a lower dosage and all is well. On particularly humid days, I still get swelled up a bit, but not nearly as bad as before the medication.

Kimberly

Hurricane · Post by **Hurricane** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 8:27 am

[quote="lilsheba"]Interesting this should come up, I've been dealing with edema since summer started pretty much. Anytime the atmospheric pressure goes up and and it gets hot I'm in pain and swollen. It was there before cpap therapy and is there now. If it does help I hope it helps soon!

I shouldn't have any heart issues, I know my blood pressure is rising but it's not horrible. I don't understand why I have it!

LEG/ANKLE EDEMA (SWELLING)

LEG/ANKLE EDEMA (SWELLING)

Edema

Edema and Cpap

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