Fluid in feet.
- Thread starter Kmac
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you of course shouldn't be getting fluid in your feet and ankles. I think this needs to be brought to the attention of your team.
what are your other stats like?
Retaining fluid in the feet and lower leg is not unusual for older people. I started getting it unrelated to my valve replacement surgery. I brought it up with my cardio and internist and was told not to be concerned.
You should tell your doctor about this.
Personally, I did not experience this. You do want to get this checked out as soon as possible. It could be a normal part of recovery for you, but swelling of the feet and ankles could also be soemething serious. At the very least, call your cardiologist's office and speak to them on the phone about your condition.
"Congestive heart failure causes one or both of the heart's lower chambers stop pumping blood well. As a result, blood can back up in the legs, ankles and feet, causing edema."
www.mayoclinic.org
"Congestive heart failure causes one or both of the heart's lower chambers stop pumping blood well. As a result, blood can back up in the legs, ankles and feet, causing edema."
Edema - Symptoms and causes
www.mayoclinic.org
Could be just your veins
veinreliever.com
If you are experiencing a chronic swelling in the legs, ankles, or feet, vein disease might be to blame. Venous edema is the term for this swelling when vein issues cause it. Over 90% of swollen legs are due to vein health, so chances are, if you have been experiencing this, the cause is venous insufficiency.
Signs Your Leg Swelling is Linked to Vein Disease | Vein Centre
Suffer from leg swelling? Read about vein disease how knowing these tips could save your life/improve the quality of the life you live.
veinreliever.com
One of the reasons for retaining fluid may be heart failure. The body produces a protein when the heart is not working well. This is BNP. This is from the Mt. Sinai website.
Brain natriuretic peptide test Information | Mount Sinai - New York.
If the levels are high or go up they frequently correlate with less than ideal heart function.
When my mitral insufficiency decompensated a number of years ago by BNP went up and I retained more fluid. Initially it is seen in the legs and ankles due to gravitational reasons. In severe cases fluid builds up in the lungs which adds to shortness of breath and the inability to lay flat due to increased fluid when not vertical,. The body holds onto sodium and the sodium holds onto water since the body attempts to maintain the appropriate sodium concentration. Diuretics help the kidneys dump sodium and the water associated with it.
So following the BNP is useful as a measure of heart function. Also a low sodium diet will help avoid water overload.
When I was an intern on a cardiology ward at the VA we use to have the patients leave over the weekends on passes if they were stable enough, They were told to avoid sodium. Invariably some would return in significant heart failure and needed large doses of diuretics to dry them out. When asked if they avoided sodium they would all say they did but then they would admit to eating pepperoni pizza. There are some other issues that could lead to accumulation of fluid such as very low plasma protein levels but by far the most common is cardiac dysfunction to some degree along with excessive sodium intake.
Vein issues as mentioned could be the cause of fluid in the lower legs but this should be more of a chronic issue and often is associated with significant varicosities. If one had a saphenous vein used for cardiac purposes the leg that it was harvested from might develop unilateral edema.
Brain natriuretic peptide test Information | Mount Sinai - New York.
If the levels are high or go up they frequently correlate with less than ideal heart function.
When my mitral insufficiency decompensated a number of years ago by BNP went up and I retained more fluid. Initially it is seen in the legs and ankles due to gravitational reasons. In severe cases fluid builds up in the lungs which adds to shortness of breath and the inability to lay flat due to increased fluid when not vertical,. The body holds onto sodium and the sodium holds onto water since the body attempts to maintain the appropriate sodium concentration. Diuretics help the kidneys dump sodium and the water associated with it.
So following the BNP is useful as a measure of heart function. Also a low sodium diet will help avoid water overload.
When I was an intern on a cardiology ward at the VA we use to have the patients leave over the weekends on passes if they were stable enough, They were told to avoid sodium. Invariably some would return in significant heart failure and needed large doses of diuretics to dry them out. When asked if they avoided sodium they would all say they did but then they would admit to eating pepperoni pizza. There are some other issues that could lead to accumulation of fluid such as very low plasma protein levels but by far the most common is cardiac dysfunction to some degree along with excessive sodium intake.
Vein issues as mentioned could be the cause of fluid in the lower legs but this should be more of a chronic issue and often is associated with significant varicosities. If one had a saphenous vein used for cardiac purposes the leg that it was harvested from might develop unilateral edema.
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Fitness and activity before and now? Walking? (daily step count?)
I had Flintstone feet for about 6 weeks
post-op.
I was way more concerned than my docs. They said after this surgery it takes time for your body to heal from the trauma from surgery.
I had to take RX diuretics or those 6 weeks. One day, they were magically back to normal.
Of course, talk to your doc team. This was my experience and doctor's thoughts.
Good luck..
