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Do You Experience Leg or Foot Pain From Medications?
I don’t have experience taking medications specifically for PH, but many of our members do. Recently , someone brought to my attention the side effect of leg and foot pain as a side effect of a medication.
I have experience with leg and foot pain due to decreased circulation to my lower extremities. Sometimes the decreased circulation causes swelling of my calves, pain in the calves, and soreness in the feet and heals.
Are you taking/have you taken a medication that causes leg or foot pain? Have you experienced leg or foot pain from poor circulation or another cause? What have you done to help relieve some of this discomfort?
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11 Replies
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I have leg cramps from time to time. I was told to drink Tonic Water w/Quinine. I wasn’t expecting much, but to my amazement it actually works. It’s cheap and to me it tastes horrible, but really works for leg cramps. I just drink as much as I can swig down in 2 big swigs (3-4 oz). It dosen’t matter if it’s hot, cold or 10 days old. I try to keep a bottle by my bed.
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Thank you for this tip! I will have to stock up on some! What is quinine? Sorry, I just am curious because I never heard of that before ! I wonder what is in the combination of the 2 that makes this helpful? Very interesting!
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Compression socks were recommended in an earlier discussion of this subject, linked below. Personally, I only found relief when I stopped walking and sat down to rest my legs and feet.
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re: compression socks vs feet up ~ likewise and they can be a struggle to put on.
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I agree Vanessa! Sometimes they can feel like a workout just to put on. The doctors always recommended that I got fitted for them at a medical supply store to find the right fit and comfort. This can help with problems related to ciculation. I found it most helpful to prop my legs on a few pillows while resting and also iced the back of my calves !
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I find that when my legs get cold is when I get the worst muscle cramps in my legs and/or feet, but sometimes also in my arms. My doctor prescribed potassium pills that I take daily and that has seemed to make it less severe, but prior to that when I had them more often, the only thing that helped was using a heating pad or covering up with a blanket. The heating pad would give me the fastest relief, so I always kept it handy. I dread going through the cold and frozen food aisles in the grocery store because it would hit me bad then and unfortunately there’s no way to use a heating pad there!
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I can see how the cold would make it worse! Usually the cold constricts the vessels so the circulation might be off when your legs are cold like that ! The heat helps to dilate those vessels back up! There are portable heating pads that can be put on almost any part of the body and provide 8 hours of heat! Thermacare makes them! They cover larger parts of the body too 🙂
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Hi Brittany,
Thanks for mentioning the Thermacare patches. I started using them for menstrual cramps when they first came out…”way back in the day”. They were a god send! I used to have such bad cramps due to endometriosis that I had to take muscle relaxers and stay in bed the first few days, if not the entire duration of my period. The patches allowed me to function normally again and it was so wonderful!
I also forgot to mention that I wear really thick sweats when i’m cold (most of the time these days!)and that seems to help. I haven’t tried thermal underwear, but that might also help. Heck, the other day I had on tights/leggings under my sweats because I just couldn’t warm up! I live in Texas so the weather is constantly up and down so layers are the best option anyway. We can be using our heater at night and by mid day, we have to put on the AC, then the heater again at nightfall. LOL.
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Hi!
I heard about Texas being like that. My boyfriend just had a work trip in Texas and said that same thing about the fluctuation of the weather. I guess extra layers is totally the way to go then! I’m glad that the therma care brand was so helpful for you. I also suffered with endometriosis for SO LONG and it was just terrible cramps. I would have to take muscle relaxers and a pain killer just to semi-function. Then I ended up getting my tubes and ovaries out and it helped the pain immensely! I hope you don’t suffer as much with that as you once did. Stay WARM! better to be warm and take off the layers than to be too HOT and not be able to get comfortable.
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My feet used to hurt to walk/stand, so I bought birkenstocks, which helped me. Strange but true, this was the only thing that helped me. This forum is awesome, I just realized I’m not alone. Thank you all
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That’s great the shoes worked for you and helped with the pain! There was another brand I think Dansko made the brand that a lot of the teachers i worked with wore and a lot of nurses wore too. They almost look like crocs minus the holes in them!
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