Swollen Ankles

[eve1974]

Hi wondering if sqad, woof or anyone else can shed light on possible reasons for what's happening to my ankles:

Ankles:
L & R both swollen by end of day.
Normal on waking though.
Lateral and medial swelling with Lateral being slightly worse.
Amount of time spent on my feet makes no diff - some days I'm on my feet walking and carrying things all day whilst others I'm desk bound.
I'm within normal BMI.
I have no health issues that I know of and am fairly fit.
By the end of each day both ankles are visibly swollen and very uncomfortable (tho not painful)
(Oh I have had various knee surgeries (none recent) for dislocating patella's and I dont know if this is somehow caused an issue with my ankles as Im getting older (im 48)

[Buenchico]

Swollen ankles are often the result of a heart problem. (My father had swollen ankles. The hospital diagnosed an enlarged heart, which was due to rather too many visits to the pub). If so, a blood-thinning drug like warfarin (taken regularly, usually for life) can be all that's needed to put things right.

However there are plenty of other possibilities. See here:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/oedema/

[eve1974]

Ty Buenchico - i forgot ur from a medical background too aren't you? Its been this way for weeks (actually more like months) so as Covid is now easing I wonder if I sold get a dr to check it out. If for no other reason than it's darn uncomfortable every night!

[calmck]

If you press into the swelling how long does it take for the indentation to disappear

[eve1974]

I "feel" healthy in every other way so im thinking it must be something to do with my gait (or something like that). Cos if it was heart, kidney etc etc I'd surely be feeling unwell at times. R knee is always slightly swollen (but I put that down to all the dislocations / subluxing over the years).

[Buenchico]

>>> i forgot ur from a medical background too aren't you?

Er, no! (Unless you count being in charge of first aid provision in a large secondary school for about a decade, that is!)

;-)

[Sqad]

Your are 48 years old and no demonstrable health issues, so is extremely unlikely to be cardiac in origin.
Same applies to a kidney origin
You make a good point about your joint problems of your legs, the recurrent dislocation of your patellar.

Surely we are looking at wear and tear of your ankle joints causing the discomfort and swelling.

See your GP who may well order some XMAS of your ankle and routine blood tests.

Nothing sinister comes to mind.

[Buenchico]

^^^ Methinks Sqad might have fallen victim to the curse of predictive text. (X-rays, perhaps?).

Either that or he's donned his Santa hat rather early this year ;-)

[Sqad]

LOL..when you get to my age you can't tell Xmas from any other day.........and it matters not lol

[ummmm]

Get some water tablets. You can by them over the counter but can get stronger ones from BP. I have to take them daily.

[ummmm]

*GP *sigh*

[anneasquith]

Eve, maybe have your blood pressure checked as a first step .

[piggynose]

06.42 ummmm, water tablets from BP, not British Petroleum?

[dannyk13]

I had swollen ankles and my GP prescribed Furosemide tablets which did work.

[woofgang]

Ummmm "Get some water tablets. You can by them over the counter but can get stronger ones from BP. I have to take them daily."

gosh are non herbal diuretics available OTC? which ones?

[ummmm]

Woof - I don't know. I take the ones prescribed. I did google and don't remember them saying herbal. My prescribed meds were delivered before I ordered

[woofgang]

The only non herbal legal OTC one I know is aqua ban, which is caffeine and ammonium chloride based. I certainly wouldn't advise anyone to use other diuretics without medical supervision, or to buy them online!

[eve1974]

Thank you all. Apologies for slow reply - hadn’t been on here yesterday.

I guess what is warranted is a gp appt.

I hate going to docs (always have not only cos of covid) so I tend to put it off for ages

[ummmm]

Woof - I was ordering them from Tesco. I would never order meds from random sites. So they probably were herbal...

I take prescribed Furosemide. They work a bit too well.

When I first started taking them I decided I was going to decorate the downstairs loo and maybe put a TV in there, a mini fridge and a coffee machine :-)