Please try this site:
http://telemedicine.org/stamford.htm
First, click on from the 'Table of contents' Diabetes in Skin Disease.... then?
Read first the 'Abstract', then the 'Introduction'..then?
Read about all the 'Diabetic Neuropathies'. WHY? Don't Have Diabetes?
Because this is what is happening to your vascular and lymphatic 'systems' as well as how the 'neuropathies' are being affected due to 'SOMETHING'.
I too got a giant whomp of edema after my PN had started, turned out that my thyroid was essentially dying at the time. The swelling, and the changes in the skin and color of that skin wasn't pretty in the least.
Have any docs done basic yet, better, extensive testing on your Thyroid? That was what caused my issues, I went from hypo-T[underactive] to Hashimoto's T [autoimmune/dead] thyroid in a short period... a year after my PN had started and my feet had swollen up beyond 3 shoe sizes during that one big, bad flare. If it were me? I'd ask to see what all tests have been done? And then get copies and GET ON-LINE and LEARN! Easier said than done tho.
Can/could you try to gently hand massageing your legs from the foot/ankle upwards past the knee to help get fluid out? Worth a try... Has ANYONE given you any strength building or retaining or flexibility exercises while you've been bed-bound? It's soo hard to get up and out, once you've been 'down a while'! More you can do or keep strong now? More easily you can get and keep more later to DO! 's! - j