6th October 2009

My legs and feet have been getting pitted edema. It happens quite often when you are pregnant and many people do not know what it looks like. Well, here is a perfect example. If you get pitted edema, talk to your doctor right away.

There can be serious medical issues why you are getting it and it can be dangerous. My doctor is monitoring me and I also am checking my blood pressure every day to make sure it is normal. Edema can also be caused by diseases that affect the various organ systems of the body, or by local conditions involving just the affected extremities. The most common systemic diseases associated with edema involve the heart, liver, and kidneys.

The dents in my leg and ankle area are from me briefly pressing my index finger onto the skin of my leg. These dents will stay quite awhile. Some evenings I have to pack my legs in ice. And in the morning after I have slept and kept them elevated above my heart, they are back to normal and I have ankles again.

Mine tend to swell up when I have been driving, when it is very hot or I have been standing too much. Today was due to driving for about four hours and not sitting/laying down enough during the day.

Yes, animals can get this too.