swollen feet/ decradon side effect

I'm on 12mg dex daily, and feet have ballooned to the point i can barely walk.shoes won't fit to get out. any suggestions to get the swelling down until help arrives? will water pills help and can they be purchased over the counter at pharmacy?
thanks in advance.

On 10/8/2009 painter58 wrote:

I'm on 12mg dex daily, and feet have ballooned to the point i can barely walk.shoes won't fit to get out. any suggestions to get the swelling down until help arrives? will water pills help and can they be purchased over the counter at pharmacy?
thanks in advance.

My Radiation Oncologist readily prescribed Furosemide, a diuretic for that situation, and although I had some swelling, it was kept at bay until I no longer needed the decadron.

I would contact your NO. She/he may reccomend an ultra sound to make sure there is not a blood clot causing the problem. My mom wore compression hose all the time, except in bed and always kept her feet elevated. Also, the doctor wrote her a script for Lasix which seemed to help. Regardless, get it checked out because you shouldn't have to live like that!

My husband had the same problem although he was on a little higher dose than you.

our docotr may or may not want to put you on a diuretic-they can cause problems too.

You should avoid salt/sodium in your diet. Check the labels--sometimes you will be very surprised how much sodium is in certain foods.

 Kepp your feet elevated as much as possible--even when you are sitting down.

 Wear compression hose (I think you can get them at some pharmacies)

Although it seems counter-intuitive-drink plenty of water to flush out your body. If your are dehydrated your body holds onto the extra fluid.

same thing happened to me.  Get a wedge pillow and prop up your feet at night:  use the tightest compression stocking appropriate for you.  be careful with diuretics as it pulls potassium out of your body and needs monitoring closly.  I know how uncomfortable they can be.  Good luck  Teri

My dad was on 16 mg a day and his feet were so swollen that he could not walk and they started to seep.  And as a doctor noted, if something is going out, something can get in and it did with an infection.

The one thing that did work was keeping his feet elevated as much as possible.   His feet returned to normal after one doctor finally ordered my dad to stay in bed with the feet elevated for a week or so and only allowed him to get up to go the bathroom.