Question:
I am having trouble with edema in my right leg which I have had for a few years now but it is getting worse. A bit of history. I am an overweight male in his early 40s. At 17 I broke my right ankle and was in a cast for a few months. After that I had a large varicosity in the leg. When I was in my mid 20s I had surgery to alleviate the varicose veins. The surgeon tied off a vein in my groin and then injected each visible vein in the leg in order to "schlerose" them. Immediately after I then ended up with a blood clot and infection in the upper thigh that was treated with blood thinners. My next problem was in my late 30s when I flipped a garden tractor over going up a hill (the engine quit) and it landed on my knee. I had a huge (baseball size) swelling at the knee. After that, I had a bad case of cellulitis on the rear of the calf that as near as the doctor's could tell was caused by an insect bite, perhaps a spider. This area is still very darkly discolored and hard to the touch. I noticed later that the skin on my right foot felt "jiggly" I went to my GP and he recommended wearing ready made commercial support stockings. This didn't seem to help and the leg started getting bigger and bigger. At first it was only towards the end of the day and would be relieved overnight. Then it started not getting fully relieved at night and my GP put me on diuretics and suggested I get a fitted compression stocking but that he didn't know much about them. I was referred to the vascular clinic at Mass General and they took me off the diuretics, saying they would have never used that treatment and gave me a prescription for a fitted stocking. I was fitted for Jobst stockings and they definitely help but it seems they are only slowing the swelling, not stopping it. I need to put the stockings on the first thing when I get up or I can actually feel my leg swell. Lately, my leg has gotten so bad that most of my pants are stretched tight by the end of the day and the stocking has a nasty habit of sliding down and has actually created a large indentation a few inches above my ankle where it the stocking slides to almost immediately after being put on. I am constantly fighting a losing battle to keep them pulled up. Even new stockings only last a few weeks before they are pulled down. I have gone througha large amount of stockings as they tend to wear out very quickly Does anyone have any recommendations or doctor/office referrals? I tried looking for an MD in MA that specializes in edema but that is not usually a listed specialty. My GP isn't sure where to refer me to and after the diuretic thing I'm not sure he knows what to do in this case anyway. Whenever I look it up on the web I find tons of info on lymphedema but not edema. Would the treatments be interchangable? I also was reading about a sleeve device? Any help or advice you can give would be greatly, greatly appreciated.

Answer: Just a shot in the dark but when that tractor fell on your knee it could have caused a ruptured Baker's Cyst which is still leaking. I had a ruptured baker's cyst a few years ago and my right leg was swollen for over six months and was quite painful. It happened about half an hour after I took an Aleve. I could actually feel the fluid leaking down the inside of my leg and watched it swell up. I went to Emergency and they did an ultrasound. I don't take Aleve anymore. When you lie down, position your leg to be higher than your heart. What kind of meds are you taking for the pain. Ibuprofen or Aleve type meds could be causing the problem to stay with you.