Peripheral edema

Over the past few months, I've been suffering from peripheral edema in my right calf and foot. At first I thought it was due to the hot weather and the fact that I sit without moving for several hours a day. I retrieved from the chair factory my foot rest that had been orphaned for the past three and a half years, but using this didn't improve matters. The idea of the foot rest is to give the feet something to press against that is supposed to help fluid return to the rest of the body.

This has happened to me before¹ and the cause was one of my medicines that is intended to lower blood pressure but also has the side effect of fluid retention, so I'm not overly worried about this. My weight also suddenly increased by a kilo about a month and a half ago - this could all be due to excess water. Eventually I decided to see my GP; when I told her about the edema, about my weight, blood pressure (very good) and pulse (rises in the afternoon/evening), she decided first to order new blood tests and an echocardiogram before making any changes in my medicine regime.

The GP is most interested in the level of blood creatinine because this relates to kidney function, but the blood tests didn't show anything decisive (although they could have been better: potassium is a bit high).  Liquid may be pooling in the legs because the kidneys aren't working too well.

The echocardiogram showed nothing abnormal ('normal left ventricular size and systolic function, normal right ventricular size and systolic function, grade 1 mild diastolic dysfunction', etc). I would like to compare it to the previous test from four years ago but the report format is completely different, and although it might seem that my heart has shrunk slightly, I think that this is due to more accurate measuring (or more accurate reporting) than for physiological reasons.

We're just about to enter the New Year and all the attendant festivals (and days off), so it's not immediately clear when I will see the GP. I imagine it will be in another nine days.

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