Re: edema/to Sam

[Guest guest]

Sam,

I saw your post about problems with edema. I've had problems with

it off and on ever since I became diabetic two and a half years ago.

I never had trouble with it before, and never had problems with it

during the year and a half I was dealing with CP before my pancreas

burn out.

But I came out of the hospital with diabetes and woke up the next

day with a severe case of edema in my feet and ankles, exclusively.

If I eat shellfish too frequently, the edema becomes really serious.

I've learned to stay away from that as much as I can, but admit to

giving in to temptation when we're vacationing on a seacoast where

it's an everyday staple. Then I suffer!!

I'm having a bad problem with edema right now, as a result of a trip

we took two weeks ago. It still hasn't cleares up, and my GI refuses

to give me Lasix or any of the other diuretics because of their

propensity to cause pancreatitis. He tells me to go home and get off

my feet and keep my legs elevated.... Yeah, like I'm able to just go

home and do that all day!

I found two " exercises " to do that are supposed to help. I've only

tried one. You need a rocking chair and another chair with lower

bars beneath the seat to curl your feet around. You sit on the

rocker, curl your feet around the lower bars of the chair and rock

back and forth at a steady pace, curling your feet around the chair

bars and flexing your ankles up and down with each motion. Keep

doing this activity for 15 minutes.

I've tried this one and it does seem to help. The motion with your

ankles is pretty much the same type of motion your ankles perform

when riding a bike, so I've been tempted to try that as well.

The other " exercise " I never have tried, but a woman in the diabetes

support group I belong to claims that it's very effective. You get

two large buckets or pails, large enough for your feet to fit into

and be flat on the bottom of the bucket or pail. You put very

warm/hot water into one pail and ice cold water into the other one.

You soak first in the hot pails for 15 minutes, then 15 minutes into

the cold, repeating this two times.

That one's just seemed like too much work to get around to, mainly

because I don't have two pails large enough to start with.

I don't have any other suggestions, but I plan to research further

to see if there's anything else that can be done. I can't get into

my shoes when it gets this bad, and wearing slippers to the grocery

just doesn't look to refined. I wear sandals (flip flops) most of

the time when this happens, since they are the only thing that's

comfortable, other than my bathroom slippers......lol!

What is HTCZ? Is this something for edema that isn't on the

pancreatitis warning list? I'd like to discuss it with my doctor,

if it is.

I hope this helps, and that you're doing better today.

With love, hope and prayers,

Heidi

Heidi H. Griffeth

SC Rep

SE Regional Rep

PAI

Note: All comments or advice are based on personal experience or

opinion only, and should not be substituted for consultation with

your medical professional.