Melody,
If it were my husband, I'd call the doctor. There is no way for any of us to know if Alan has a blood clot, if the infection is worse, or if it is still the same infection. Call the doctor. Play safe.

Sure hope it isn't anything serious.
Billye

Before we go rushing to the doctor (sure, I can call him, that parts easy), the hard part is telling Alan he can't go to the gym, let me tell you that I just measured the ankle tht was swollen last night. It went down a whole inch. It is now 10 and a half inches when last night it was over 11 inches.

Also the top of his foot is less swollen. Maybe that's because he was laying down all night sleeping with his feet up on the bed.

Also, and I could kick myself in the head for not putting this in my original post, but Alan (since he had the stent) was put on a rather low-salt diet. In our house it was salt free. Nothing with sodium.

Well, in the past week, this guy likes pancake syrup on every single thing he eats. One serving has 110 mgs of sodium. Alan has it on his chicken, his vegetables, (especially his carrots), I cook with the stuff, then I pour it on after the stuff is cooked. So absolutely everything he has eaten for the past week is covered in pancake syrum that has 110 mgs a serving. So you know, he's getting a lot more than the 100 mgs right? AND HE NEVER DRINKS WATER. He's supposed to be drinking water, isn't he? I just told him and he says" "I feel fine and I'm going to the gym, it will help circulate my blood".

Also, in my blueberry muffins, (he eats 2 small ones). He splits them and pours the pancake syrup on them.

And two days ago I made meatballs and of course I added pecorino romano cheese to the meatball mixture.

Do you think that this sodium intake could have made the foot swell up. It does appear to be going down and he is seeing Dr. Baird on Thursday.

I really think this is edema due to the sodium (which his body was not used to).

I looked up swollen foot on the internet and it didn't say anyting about blood clots. It said that certain meds can cause it also. Besides sodium. Various treatments say "stick the foot in a bucket of ice water for 5 minutes, massage the foot, massaging upward", drink water!!!!!!!

what do you think?
mel

Still taking the Lyrica? This causes fluid retention.

It really looks like Alan has taste problems. He probably cannot taste
anything but sweet. Putting pancake syr on food? YUKKKKK

People do strange things with food, but this one Mel, is pretty odd.

Hi Mrs. D.

Didn't know that about the lyrica. I just looked at his foot and it's definitely less swollen than last night.

I also asked him "Alan, when you went to see Dr. Baird last thursday, did he notice the swelling of the foot on top", He said "Of course he did, he also noticed the rash and just in case it might be an infection, he put me on antibiotics". I said "oh, okay, so the doctor DOES know about the swelling". Alan just looked at me like I have bats in my belfry.

Also, he said "you know, I haven't been able to get my rings on my fingers lately, (he had mentioned this to me but then he always goes "well, I obviously have rheumatoid arthritis) which he DOES NOT HAVE by the way.

I then made him lie down and took some body lotion and massaged his foot upward (like it said to do on one of the websites I just went to).

And of course he's going to the gym after breakfast. God forbid he should listen to me and rest and elevate his feet today.

Oh well, we go there on thursday and soon we go and see Dr. Goldfarb (the PN specialist).

And god forbid if I see another bottle of pancake syrup. He has had this taste perversion thing going on ever since he was on the fentanyl. Things can't be sweet enough for him.

Oh, Mrs. D. I just went to the Dunkin' Donuts website. They give you nutrition value for all their foods. When Alan goes there for lunch after his gym workout he has a reduced fat blueberry muffin. I just noticed it has over 400 mgs of sodium. He asked me to look up plain bagels. They were worse. They had 610 mg of sodium. Just for fun, I said to Alan, "let's look up Salt Bagels".
They do indeed have Salt Bagels on their menu. Do you know how much sodium is in a Salt Bagel?? OVER 4000 mgs of sodium. We nearly fell off the chair. I couldn't believe what I read.
I also can't believe that years ago, I used to eat these things with cream cheese. It's a wonder I didn't swell up like a balloon.

Will update.

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond.

I'm just a worry wart.

Take care,
Melody

He says the lyrica just takes the edge off, it's not miracle cure.
So is this fluid retention for life, or will it adjust. Have any ideas?? We will be calling Dr. Fred later on today.

who had fluid retention go away on Lyrica or Neurontin. It is a given for the
drugs. Some have extreme effects..some less so. But there is always some.

Sodium is the most plentiful mineral in food. You can't avoid it.
But avoiding artificially high items like salt bagels, pickles, and canned soups,
is basically what the low sodium diet is geared for. Not salting food is another way to avoid high sodium. But there is substantial sodium in all dairy products.
This is because milk to the young animal from the mother, is vital. So dairy has sodium.

No doctor expects you to go below 2 grams a day.

You might want to give Alan a zinc supplement. OptiZinc is the best one out there and not expensive. Low zinc levels usually cause taste/smell perversion.
Low zinc also affects HEALING and zinc therapy is a cornerstone for wound management. So with both taste problems and a poorly healing wound...zinc would be a good idea for Alan! I would start at one a day. Bring this up with the doctor...if he wants a higher dose, he can recommend that.

Melody, you know I have been on Lyrica for some time now and I have never had any swelling around my ankles or feet. I must be one of the lucky ones (usually I am not) because I even lost weight when I first went on it.

Well, must get busy

A long time ago, the doctors at Coney Island Hospital (when Alan was first diagnosed with PN, told him to stop taking zinc.

So he did.

However, he presently takes a vitamin supplment which includes zinc, 15 mg once a day.

Is this sufficient?

We shall ask Dr. Baird on Thursday, when we see him.

thanks to all of you. Melody


this is how I see all of us, dancing in a circle