Hi all. My mother-in-law has terribly swollen legs and they always seem to hurt her. They are also usually a reddish color. She is unable to lift them on her own in order to prop them up during the day. She is home alone from about 1 PM to 11 PM daily.
Her doctors seem to be worthless. On a good note, her insurance has changed and she will now be going to a different clinic. I really hope her doctor here will take her condition a bit more seriously.
Does anyone have any suggestions for helping with the swollen legs? Also, do you have any suggestions on questions I should ask while looking for a new doctor. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Hi, my mom has this same problem. Most of the time she swells from her knees down. Her doctor gave her water pills, a special creme to rub on them, and also had her get fitted for special support knee-hi's, and all of these have really seemed to help her quite a bit. Hope this helps in some way.
CJs Mom
Thanks so much for the response. Its been pretty disheartening seeing her in constant pain. I will let her know your suggestions and will also mention them to her new doctor. Thanks again!
Sorry to hear about your mom & hope she does get help with the new clinic & Dr. I wanted to let you know about pain & swollen legs. If the swelling is from water retention, then the pain is may be from that besides something else.
Hospice told us that when my husband's legs (or other peoples) swell up with water it presses on the nerves & causes pain. Sometimes it can be so sensitive that nobody can touch the leg. So if the problem is edema & it can be resolved the pain can lighten up or even hopefully go away.
A possibility during the day. One person I know got two jumpropes. She put a jumprope around her feet at the arches. When sitting, she could pull on the ropes to bring her leg(s) up onto the hassock to help the edema out of the legs. This might work for your mom.
Good luck to you and your mom.
Thanks for the post. I love the jumprope idea. I will bring it up to her tonight. Her arms are rather weak also, but hopefully this is something that can work for her. Take care!
Re: Help for swollen legs??? 
