Disneyfreak
Apr 19, 2004, 01:59 PM
Hi... I think I want to take a chance at telling my story of LE and how I have come across it.
Most of my life, I had really chunky legs. I thought they were just muscular... and that the indents in my ankles were from my weight. I was always just about mobile, with the exception of the time I fractured my right ankle... and then the times I sprained my ankles. (I had a double sprain that happened when I was on my way to school when I was 16 years old; the kids swore I was on my way up the steps to cut school when I was on my way down the steps to get into school and I was running late... and was going to be late for my first period class.)
I would work 8 hours a day on my feet.. sometimes more, depending on the job I had... and I started to notice that even tho I was always on my feet, I hardly ever had sweaty feet. I also would notice that my feet, ankles, and feet would swell pretty bad. I still dismissed it as my weight, because at that point I was around 400 lbs.
I had something happen to me when I was 24. I had a father who had a similar condition called Lower Extremity Venous Stasis Disease, where it causes ulcers in the calves and such. He would be plagued with Cellulitis, and one of the infections he constantly had was Staph. One day, when I went down to change his bandage, I didn't know he had it, I had taken off the gloves because I was done changing his leg, and I noticed a 4x4 on the floor that fell out of the glove. It wasn't totally soaked, so I tried to grab it by the dry and clean corner. Or so it looked. I grabbed it, put it right in the trash can without even thinking about it as fast as I could, and then cleaned my hands with the hand sanitizer. The 4x4 felt slightly damp. I didn't even think when I was changing things, I had a cut on this hand.
A few days later, I ended up seriously sick. I felt the fever, the chills, I felt like I was going to die. I kept saying that I was going to die, kept giving out my password on AOL, and said to my dad and mom, tell everyone I said goodbye.
I felt better two days later... so I thought it was just a nasty flu bug... this wasn't teh case another week later when my legs started to spring leaks.
At this point, I was working odd jobs that didn't offer Healthcare coverage. So I couldn't go to the Dr's about it.... so I just kept fighting things on my own.
Finally, I lost my dad back in 2000... about two months after I lost him and sat around mourning his loss, I woke up and started to walk and felt like someone whacked me in the front of my right leg and in the back of my left leg with a crowbar. I walked around like I just had pulled muscles.
After a week, these spots turned into purply-black spots that looked like bruises, and then into blisters and then they popped. I will NEVER forget the agony of them popping. I walked around with them open, weeping, and making a mess everywhere.
I was finally allowed healthcare from my state back in September 2001. I had seen a Dr on their request because of being flooded out, and they wanted to know why I couldn't work. It was at this time that I was told because of my weight, my legs would never get any better but they would heal over. They were talking double amputation. I decided to go ahead and have the RNY Gastric Bypass, at the advice of the PCP I was seeing and the Wound Care Dr that I had seen as well.
I met my surgeon at 488 lbs. I unofficially weighed in at 503 lbs at one point before I met him.
I met him on April 16, 2002. I had my surgery on August 21, 2002... and to date, I have dropped 203 lbs. The past few months, well since November, I haven't dropped much... and I actually put on weight. (I managed to gain 18 lbs in a matter of 6 weeks with no dieting changes.) I also had sores form on my legs... so I called on my primary to look things over.
January 8th, I went in to see him. I let him overlook everything.. including a mass on my left thigh that I had been complaining about since July and was told it was nothing more then excess skin. When he felt it, he said that it didn't feel like excess skin only. he also saw the fact that I had sores forming and that my legs were so dry, layer upon layer of skin was flaking off. After he saw the swelling more the shape of my legs, he rediagnosed me. I ha Cronic Venous Insuffiency, and that I had LE.
He put me through the ring to prove things... and so far so good as far as proving. He sent me for an ultrasound to rule out the DVT. That's when he found a swollen lymph node in my left thigh, where the mass was found. I was sent to a CT Scan and told to set up an appt with an oncologist. After they got the results back, I was told to set up an appt for a surgeon as well.
I saw the oncologist. I was told she didn't think it was LE... but to be safe, she sent me for an MRI. She also said that because she deals with secondary, primary LE can suffice as something else.
I hope to be released by the end of this week so I can go down to see this specialist down at U of Penn in Philly. She deals primarily with LE.
Anyhow.... that's me. And I do have to thank AmyKenneth for
getting me all the info I can about this condition.
Mags
Most of my life, I had really chunky legs. I thought they were just muscular... and that the indents in my ankles were from my weight. I was always just about mobile, with the exception of the time I fractured my right ankle... and then the times I sprained my ankles. (I had a double sprain that happened when I was on my way to school when I was 16 years old; the kids swore I was on my way up the steps to cut school when I was on my way down the steps to get into school and I was running late... and was going to be late for my first period class.)
I would work 8 hours a day on my feet.. sometimes more, depending on the job I had... and I started to notice that even tho I was always on my feet, I hardly ever had sweaty feet. I also would notice that my feet, ankles, and feet would swell pretty bad. I still dismissed it as my weight, because at that point I was around 400 lbs.
I had something happen to me when I was 24. I had a father who had a similar condition called Lower Extremity Venous Stasis Disease, where it causes ulcers in the calves and such. He would be plagued with Cellulitis, and one of the infections he constantly had was Staph. One day, when I went down to change his bandage, I didn't know he had it, I had taken off the gloves because I was done changing his leg, and I noticed a 4x4 on the floor that fell out of the glove. It wasn't totally soaked, so I tried to grab it by the dry and clean corner. Or so it looked. I grabbed it, put it right in the trash can without even thinking about it as fast as I could, and then cleaned my hands with the hand sanitizer. The 4x4 felt slightly damp. I didn't even think when I was changing things, I had a cut on this hand.
A few days later, I ended up seriously sick. I felt the fever, the chills, I felt like I was going to die. I kept saying that I was going to die, kept giving out my password on AOL, and said to my dad and mom, tell everyone I said goodbye.
I felt better two days later... so I thought it was just a nasty flu bug... this wasn't teh case another week later when my legs started to spring leaks.
At this point, I was working odd jobs that didn't offer Healthcare coverage. So I couldn't go to the Dr's about it.... so I just kept fighting things on my own.
Finally, I lost my dad back in 2000... about two months after I lost him and sat around mourning his loss, I woke up and started to walk and felt like someone whacked me in the front of my right leg and in the back of my left leg with a crowbar. I walked around like I just had pulled muscles.
After a week, these spots turned into purply-black spots that looked like bruises, and then into blisters and then they popped. I will NEVER forget the agony of them popping. I walked around with them open, weeping, and making a mess everywhere.
I was finally allowed healthcare from my state back in September 2001. I had seen a Dr on their request because of being flooded out, and they wanted to know why I couldn't work. It was at this time that I was told because of my weight, my legs would never get any better but they would heal over. They were talking double amputation. I decided to go ahead and have the RNY Gastric Bypass, at the advice of the PCP I was seeing and the Wound Care Dr that I had seen as well.
I met my surgeon at 488 lbs. I unofficially weighed in at 503 lbs at one point before I met him.
I met him on April 16, 2002. I had my surgery on August 21, 2002... and to date, I have dropped 203 lbs. The past few months, well since November, I haven't dropped much... and I actually put on weight. (I managed to gain 18 lbs in a matter of 6 weeks with no dieting changes.) I also had sores form on my legs... so I called on my primary to look things over.
January 8th, I went in to see him. I let him overlook everything.. including a mass on my left thigh that I had been complaining about since July and was told it was nothing more then excess skin. When he felt it, he said that it didn't feel like excess skin only. he also saw the fact that I had sores forming and that my legs were so dry, layer upon layer of skin was flaking off. After he saw the swelling more the shape of my legs, he rediagnosed me. I ha Cronic Venous Insuffiency, and that I had LE.
He put me through the ring to prove things... and so far so good as far as proving. He sent me for an ultrasound to rule out the DVT. That's when he found a swollen lymph node in my left thigh, where the mass was found. I was sent to a CT Scan and told to set up an appt with an oncologist. After they got the results back, I was told to set up an appt for a surgeon as well.
I saw the oncologist. I was told she didn't think it was LE... but to be safe, she sent me for an MRI. She also said that because she deals with secondary, primary LE can suffice as something else.
I hope to be released by the end of this week so I can go down to see this specialist down at U of Penn in Philly. She deals primarily with LE.
Anyhow.... that's me. And I do have to thank AmyKenneth for
getting me all the info I can about this condition.
Mags