On my way home from my Dad's Sunday night, I felt that my left leg was swollen and tight. It was hard to tell if it was real or imagined since I was driving. After I got home, 45 minutes later, I decided on a well-needed shower. When I was able to see both legs, there was no doubt. My left leg was twice the size of my right leg. The skin was tight and puffy. I immediately thought "blood clot", but I did not have any pain, it was not hot to the touch, and I could move it pretty easily. I called the on call doctor and he said to get to an ER to have an ultrasound done to eliminate the blood clot possibility. So we did and the ultrasound did not show a clot, just a really fat left leg. One of the the things that did show up though was that my Hemoglobin was 12.5 in September, 11.6 in October, 10.6 in November, and had now fallen to 8.3 today. So while we think that the swelling in the leg is lymphedema, because the lymph nodes are so enlarged they can't drain, I am definitely in line for a blood transfusion tomorrow. I am to keep my legs elevated as much as possible and if the swelling does not resolve itself in 2-3 days, we will have to look at options to get them to drain. Still could be a problem there, too. Not sure what that will be yet. All for now. The blood test at least explained the extreme fatigue that I could not figure out. All my best to you and yours.
Brian.
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