Several weeks ago, I noticed the top (instep?) of my left foot looked puffy. I have pretty skinny legs, so this was new. As time went by the lower leg, calf especially, and ankle began to swell, no pain. The swelling for several days now has leveled off, no worse, no better. However there is now pain in my calf. Hurts to walk, like a charlie horse, kind of, but I'm walking nonetheless. Search last night revealed edema, worst scenario, circulatory failure (heart failure), liver failure. No classic liver-related symptoms, liver enzymes normal last CBC (February). Additional, obesity, sodium retention, involvement with Deep Vein Thrombosis.Calling doctor soon if no improvement, but thought with all of us old here, certainly someone knows more than I at this time. Thanks! Frank
Hope all goes well for you Frank, you're braver than me I just suffer in silence You're sensible to get it checked, I'm not
Go and see your Doctor Frank, easy to get scared witless after reading Dr Google, but as an intelligent person you know you need to see a real Doc...... Good luck, hopefully it's something that can be treated easily...
I agree with @Patsy Faye and @Holly Saunders. In the meantime try not walking on it and prop your foot up.
Yes Frank at this time you need to see a doctor, just rule out a big issue. Have you tried massaging your leg and foot? Keep us posted
I have never searched Google quacks in me life - you are doing the right thing 'now' Frank to put yer mind at rest
Yeah, seeing a doctor is definitely appropriate but meanwhile, I might suggest you take an anti-inflammatory med like sodium naproxen (Aleve or something similar). Just for kicks, have you searched for a small spider bite or perhaps even a small tick between the toes? Four eyes are better than two so it might be best to ask your wife to look too. Uh.....stay away from inflammatory foods until you see the doc and keep the foot elevated (as suggested already). And, in addition to what the others have stated, Google has probably helped more people go on some sort of stress medicine than any other entity I can think of. People wind up going to the doctor and being treated for something totally different than what they found on line AND being treated for a case of googlitus.
Having had the terrible leg swelling from heart failure, myself, I think that your symptoms are probably NOT that, since it is only in one leg. I would think that most any kind of edema or organ problems (kidney, liver, heart, etc) would involve swelling of both legs and not just one of them. I agree with Bobby that some kind of a bite is also a possibility. When I was bitten by the copperhead, my leg and foot were swollen and painful for almost a month afterwards. The bite itself was from a small snake , and it felt like I had scratched myself on a thorn of some kind, like a rose bush. Then, I realized that we had no rose bushes where I was at, turned around and looked into the mean little eyes of a mad copperhead. If I hadn’t stopped to look, there was no evidence of a snake bite afterwards, just a little tiny puncture there. So, it is totally possible that something bit you and you didn’t notice it, or slept through it. Also, a tiny sliver can cause a lot of swelling, and in a large area. One friend got a sliver from a power pole in the pad of his thumb, and his whole hand was so sore and swollen that even the doctor didn’t find the sliver, or know what had caused the swelling. My mom asked it he might have gotten a sliver, and when he vaguely remembered that happening, she put a chunk of aloe Vera on the spot where the sliver was and bandaged it over night. By the next day, the aloe had drawn all of the swelling out and the sliver was at the surface where it could be extracted easily. When I had the snakebite, the doctor told me to keep my leg elevated, just like I had to do when I had the broken leg, so you might try doing that and see if it relieves the pain and swelling at all. I would lie on the couch and put my foot on the top of the back, which kept it pretty elevated, and I could really feel the difference when I put my foot back down and stood up to walk. I agree with everyone else. This is one of those times when you should see a doctor. If it is a bite, you will need antibiotics for it probably. Keep us updated on your progress, and hope you are feeling better again soon, @Frank Sanoica !
Frank, I hope you will see your doctor soon. My husband has peripheral artery disease (PAD) and had to have a stint put in at the top of his thigh. His symptoms were leg cramping and his foot on the affected leg got ice cold. No swelling that I recall, though.
Could be DVT @Frank Sanoica, but more likely the failure of the valves in the veins in your lower legs. Get it checked out though, as it may be indicative of problems. Could be PAD as as has been suggested.
@Yvonne Smith Bingo, maybe! At least three weeks ago, I had a severe itching tiny red spot on the upper part of my left foot. Thought at the time it was just another psoriatic itch, as I get them very locally, not many, not often, mainly on the legs. Never thought about a bite! Certainly possible, as I prowl about bare-footed much of the time. I will take a couple of Ibuprofen today and see what develops. Thanks so much, all of you! Frank
You need to see a doctor and get an antibiotic if it is a poisonous bite, @Frank Sanoica . They gave me the antibiotic, anti-inflammatory pain meds, and told me to keep the leg elevated, and that if I didn’t do that, I could lose the leg ......... NOT something to fool around with ! !
@Yvonne Smith Wow! Hardly could have been a snake bite, as I've never heard of a one-fanged snake! Spider, possibly, though we see few here, think the bird population keeps their numbers down, scorpions included. They DO produce a single puncture, unless stabbing around, as they are prone to do. We have the nastiest tiny ants here which bite miserably well. They are under 1/8 inch long, bite like crazy, and produce a red spot about the size of a dime which itches and burns usually for less than 24 hours. Frank
Frank, my Wife had the same. Ended up taking anti-biotic steroids, and wearing a compression stocking for 6 weeks. (20-30 lbs). It has returned to normal. No poison snake involved.