After Grandma’s fall in February, she was taken off hydrochlorothiazide because it was depleting her sodium to dangerous levels. Since then, she hasn’t been on any type of diuretic — and we’ve been in an uphill battle with swelling in her legs ever since.
It got so bad that her legs began weeping fluid — literally oozing. I’d never seen anything like it. The Home Health nurse assured me that while alarming, it’s actually common: when the body retains too much fluid, it has to come out somehow. The photo to the right is the one I took to send to the nurse to show how much was weeping from her legs.
Despite compression socks, movement, elevation, and everything else we tried, the swelling got worse. It started interfering with her mobility, especially in the leg she had surgery on. She could no longer lift it at all.
After several weeks of trying to get in with her primary doctor, we finally had an appointment — and he prescribed a loop diuretic.
She’s been on it for just two days, and we are already seeing a major difference:
She’s lost 2.7 pounds of fluid since yesterday morning.
Total fluid gain before the water pill? 11.9 pounds ??
Yes, I feed her well, but not 4 pounds in one day well.
We're seeing a noticeable reduction in swelling, and her mobility is improving already. We are definitely on the right track!
