Hiya Jenetti,
Yes I have lots of fluid swishing about, mainly in my ankles and lower legs normally. My hands get puffy as you describe and I have problems wearing my rings.
I am at the moment though quite bad with all over body fluid retention, but this has been brought on by a lot of things. I have increased my diuretics for the past 3 weeks and hopefully this will help me some. I am due to have an echocardigram done though to make sure the fluid isn't causing problems with my heart, as I do have ongoing cardiac issues.
The thing is when a reference is made to soft tissue swelling, it usually means your skin, fat and muscle, together with any glands and vessels contained within them. Any of those tissues can become inflamed and swell. The doctor should, I am sure, be able to differentiate between fluid retention and soft tissue swelling.
Anyway though, if you feel that you might be retaining fluid anyway, it can't do any harm to ask the advice of your doctor and perhaps ask him for diuretics. You can only, as far as I know, get diuretics from your doctor. They are not generally an OTC medication.
I do hope this helps. Take care.
goldenwings
