Excessive leg and foot swelling

[Sunshine_Gal 68]

I'm curious to know if any of you were on Blood Pressure & Water pills prior to surgery and had your surgeon take you off your water retention medicine the day of surgery. I was fine for the first month and then my feet and legs, up to my knees, started swelling to the point of lots of pain. I waited until I had my six week check up with my surgeon assuming he would put me back on the water retention medication or suggest something else. To my surprise he wasn't really concerned but he did tell me if I wanted more followup to check with my family physician or cardiologist.

I saw my family physician on Thursday, 3 days ago, and have lost 10 pounds, I can't believe the difference in my legs and feet in 3 short days! My family doctor was so upset because I also take another medication, which I'm still on, for incontinence, which also causes water retention. To be on the safe side he's having me do an electrocardiogram and stress test to rule out heart complications.

I wondered if this is a general practice with surgeons with bypass surgery to remove the water retention medications. I look forward to your input.

[goodnuff 239]

Mine did, stating the concern was dehydration in the beginning until I could routinely get in 64 ounces of fluids a day. I'm almost 3 weeks posy op and still not getting in that much everyday, I've noticed minimal swelling but my BP was great, guess I'll monitor it closely.

[BLERDgirl 6,417]

Do you monitor your sodium and/or use a food diary of any sort? One of the reasons why I switched to a whole food diet was because of swelling of my hands/feet but also getting sick from every medication used to treat it. It would trigger my vertigo condition.

[terrydumont46 1,954]

I was taken off just the days I was in the hospital. and I am surprised you were off your bp meds at all. but when they took me off Lasix and was giving me iv fluids I developed heart failure while in the hospital. had to stay 3 full days over the usual one day discharge. for anyone having surgery and are on blood pressure and Water pills it is dangerous to just go off them. these are some of the medications that you should go home on. but there is another lesson here for all to learn. prior to surgery you should discuss all your medications with your primary care, surgeon and pharmacist. to change pills from large to small, non chewables to chewables etc. I have on my medication list that no medications to be changed unless my pc and psychiatrist is contacted first and I list their names and phone numbers.

[Sunshine_Gal 68]

@@BLERDgirl - I had been monitoring everything using Fat Secret Ap on my my PC and syncing to my iPhone. Then my surgeon said to quit. Don't track anything, don't measure anything, only eat what could fit in the palm of my hand, mostly Protein and a little something else.

I have come to find that we need to do what works for us with the input and help of our surgeon, family doctor and other professionals. Nothing is cut and dried for everyone and not one thing will work for all.

[Sunshine_Gal 68]

@@terrydumont46 I wasn't taken off my BP meds only the Water pills. I just saw my doctor again on the 8th. (I now have an upper respiratory virus which is rampant in our area right now, the hospital is completely full!). I had lost 16 pounds in six days! He told me he thought I had 30 pounds of Water and I thought he was wacky and now I've lost 16. Maybe he was right. Anyway, the weight loss has slowed way down, and I actually have feet with veins I can see and toes again! And to my amazement my legs are much smaller. My skin still is sore and he says that's just because it was stretched so tightly and will take a while to heal.

I'm now on antibiotics and trying to fight the virus. Geez I never get sick like this. I feel better but am so tired after doing almost nothing. I think it will take a while to bounce back!

And again, I think this WLS process needs to be a combination of doctors working together to the same end. My surgeon was so against the water pills and yet I wonder what all that water was doing to my heart. What a strain. I still need to complete the cardiac stress test but that's put on hold until I'm completely over this virus.

Edited April 10, 2015 by Sunshine_Gal

[BLERDgirl 6,417]

I think I track more out of habit than anything else at this point. I've been doing it for 4 years now so I have a pretty good idea of what I can and cannot eat. Unfortunately Water pills aren't an option for me. Thankfully for me I haven't had any issues with feet/leg swelling since my surgery. I am happy to hear that you are feeling a little better. Hopefully things will continue to improve.