HELP PLEASE, Edema in both feet?!
Question: My husband as edema in both feet. It does not hurt him at all. This has been going on for almost a month now. His feet have not been the priortiy since our 8 mth old daughter was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy last month. Does anyone have any ideas?
Answers: My husband as edema in both feet. It does not hurt him at all. This has been going on for almost a month now. His feet have not been the priortiy since our 8 mth old daughter was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy last month. Does anyone have any ideas?
Does your husband have congestive heart failure (CHF)?
It could be that his diuretics are not dosed properly... he may need a higher dose of Lasix (furosemide) if he's already on it, or some as needed if he doesn't have a prescription for it yet... if your daughter has hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, I'd say your husband is probably dealing with some sort of CHF- its a tough disease to manage, but there are lots of great life-prolonging medications out there... he should be on a beta-blocker (3 are approved for use in CHF: bisoprolol, carvedilol, and metoprolol succionate) and ACE inhibitor at the minimum...
Massage can help a lot with edema, but if he is also diabetic, he needs to take care that too much pressure is not applied (it causes too much stress on the blood vessels and can tear and leave bruises for someone with too much sugar in their blood).
He should lift his legs as often as possible as well. Get hold of a good massage therapist, or you could do it yourself, if you want to. He could do it as well, but it can be hard to reach. Massage the area and make sure all of your motions are going up towards the heart. Massage can aid in blood return and help extra fluids that are trapped in the extremities to get back into circulation and eventually be eliminated.
He should take care of it before it starts to hurt him, as I imagine you know. Also he should walk, as exercise helps with circulation. Another technique I have heard about, but don't know enough about (look it up online) is using cold and hot water baths to increase circulation, one after another, but more cold than hot as hot will bring more fluids to the area if it is used for too long.
Good luck, hope this helps and I am sorry about your daughter, that must be so difficult.